Do  not  taltisr  m  shrank;; 

But  just  think  out  your  vl 

And  theti  work  out  3Xi-i 


ti|hlllllllllll>MIIIIIMII>f||l|IM 


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of  the 

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"BOY  WANTED" 


OTHER  BOOKS 
By  NIXON  WATERMAN 


A  BOOK  OF  VERSES 
IN  MERRY  MOOD 

A  Book  of  Cheerful  Rhymes. 

Cloth,  i2mo,  each,  I1.25. 

FORBES  &  COMPANY,  CHICAGO 


4. 


i( 


BOY  WANTED" 

A  BOOK    OF  CHEERFUL  COUNSEL 


BY 

NIXON  WATERMAN 

AUTHOR  OF  "  A  BOOK  OF  VERSES," 
■'in  merry  MOOD,"  ETC. 


A£23o 


THIRD    EDITION 


CHICAGO 

FORBES 

AND    COMPANY 

1909 

-^-1-^ 

^.w.  J5  0  3' 

Copyright,  1906 

BY 

NIXON  WATERMAN 
All  Rights  Ruerved 


HF 

5-380 


TO  I 

THE  BOY  WHO  DISCERNS  j 

He  can  never  be  "it'*  I 

Until  he  develops  • 

Some  "git-up-and-git."  1 


Acknowledgments  are  hereby  made  to  the  pub- 
lishers of  Life,  Success,  Saturday  Evening  Post, 
Woman's  Home  Companion,  St.  Nicholas,  Chris- 
tian Endeavor  World,  Young  People's  Weekly, 
Youth's  Companion,  and  other  periodicals,  for  their 
courteous  permission  to  reprint  the  author's  copy- 
righted poems  which  originally  appeared  in  their 
publications. 


PREFACE 

TN  presenting  this  book  of  cheerful  counsel  to  his  youthful 
friends,  and  such  of  the  seniors  as  are  not  too  old  to  ac- 
cept a  bit  of  friendly  admonition,  the  author  desires  to  offer 
a  word  of  explanation  regarding  the  history  of  the  making 
of  this  volume. 

So  many  letters  have  been  received  from  people  of  all 
classes  and  ages  requesting  copies  of  some  of  the  author's 
lines  best  suited  for  the  purpose  of  engendering  a  sense  of 
self-help  in  the  mind  of  youth,  that  he  deems  it  expedient  to 
offer  a  number  of  his  verses  in  the  present  collected  form. 
While  he  is  indebted  to  a  great  array  of  bright  minds  for 
the  prose  incidents  and  inspiration  which  constitute  a  large 
portion  of  this  volume,  he  desires  to  be  held  personally 
responsible  for  all  of  the  rhymed  lines  to  be  found  within 
these  covers. 

It  may  be  especially  true  of  advice  that  "it  is  more 
blessed  to  give  than  to  receive,"  but  it  is  hoped  that  in  this 
present  form  of  tendering  friendly  counsel  the  precepts  will 
be  accepted  in  the  same  cheerful  spirit  in  which  they  are 
offered. 

The  author  realizes  that  no  one  is  more  urgently  in  need 
of  good  advice  and  the  intelligence  to  follow  it  than  is  the 
writer  of  these  lines,  and  none  cries  more  earnestly  the  well- 
known  truth — 

Oh,  fellow  men  and  brothers, 

Could  we  but  use  the  free 
Advice  we  give  to  others, 

How  happy  we  should  be ! 


While  the  title  of  this  book  and  the  character  of  its  con- 
tents make  it  obvious  that  it  is  a  volume  designed  primarily 
for  the  guidance  of  youth,  no  one  should  pass  it  by  merely 
because  he  has  reached  the  years  of  maturity,  and  presum- 
ably of  discretion.  As  a  matter  of  fact  Time  cannot  remove 
any  of  us  very  far  from  the  fancies  and  foibles,  the  dreams 
and  dangers  of  life's  morning  hours. 

Age  bringeth  wisdom,  so  they  say, 

But  lots  of  times  we  've  seen 
A  man  long  after  he  was  gray 

Keep  right  on  being  "green." 

N.W. 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER  PAGE 

I     THE  AWAKENING ii 

The  life  partnership.  When  to  begin.  Foresight.  "Boy  Want- 
ed." The  power  of  mind.  "Couldn't  and  Could."  Selfmade 
men.    "  Deliver  the  Goods." 

II     "AM  I  A  GENIUS?" 23 

Genius  defined.  Inspiration  and  perspiration.  "Stick  to  It." 
Genius  and  patience.  "Keep  Pegging  Away."  Examples  of  pa- 
tience.   "The  Secret  of  Success." 

III  OPPORTUNITY 35 

What  is  a  fair  chance?  Abraham  Lincoln.  Depending  on  self. 
"  Myself  and  I."  The  importance  of  the  present  moment.  "  Right 
Here  and  Just  Now."    Poverty  and  success.    "  Keep  A-Trying." 

IV  OVER  AND  UNDERDOING 49 

Precocity.  Starting  too  soon  as  bad  as  starting  too  late.  The 
value  of  health.  "  Making  a  man."  The  worth  of  toil.  "  How  to 
Win  Success."     Sharpened  v/its,    "The  Steady  Worker." 

V     THE  VALUE  OF  SPARE  MOMENTS       ...         61 

Wasting  time.  "The  'Going-to-Bees  !'"  The  possibilities  of  one 
hour  a  day.  "Just  This  Minute."  The  vital  importance  of  prop- 
erly employing  leisure  moments.    "  Do  It  Now." 

VI     CHEERFULNESS 75 

The  value  of  smiles.  "To  Know  All  is  to  Forgive  All."  Hope 
and  strength.  "A  Cure  for  Trouble."  Carlyle  on  cheerfulness. 
"The  One  With  a  Song."  Pessimism  as  a  barrier  to  success.  "A 
Smile  and  a  Task."  A  profitable  virtue.  "An  Open  Letter  to  the 
Pessimist." 

VII     DREAMING  AND  DOING 89 

Practicality.  "  Hank  Streeter's  Brain  -  Wave."  Self-esteem. 
"The  Valley  of  Never."  Opportunity  and  application.  "Vender 
Grass." 


CONTENTS 


VIII     "TRIFLES" 101 

The  value  of  little  things.  Sowing  and  reaping.  The  power  of 
habit.  "  '  I  Wish '  and  '  I  Will.'  "  Jenny  Lind's  humble  begin- 
ning. Canova's  genius.  Present  opportunities.  **  *  Now'  and 
'  Waitawhile.' " 

IX    THE  WORTH  OF  ADVICE 115 

Heeding  the  sign-post.  The  value  of  guide-books.  "The 
World's  Victors."  Good  books  a  boy's  best  friend.  The  danger 
of  knowing  too  much.  "  My  Boyhood  Dreams."  Reading  and 
reflecting. 

X    REAL  SUCCESS 129 

Are  you  the  boy  wanted?  Money  and  success.  "On Getting 
Rich."  Thinking  and  doing.  Life's  true  purpose.  "The  Mother's 
Dream." 


ILLUSTRATIONS 


Lincoln's  Birthplace 

Patrick  Henry  Delivering  His  Celebrated 

Speech        

Whittier's  Birthplace    ..... 
Watt  Discovering  the  Condensation  of  Steam 
Longfellow's  Birthplace        .... 
Garfield  as  a  Canal  Boy      .... 
Birthplace  of  Benjamin  Franklin 
Washington  and  Lafayette  at  Mount  Vernon 


Frontisfiece 


Faci 


ng  page  23 
35 
49 
61 

75 
89 

lOI 


"BOY  WANTED 


99 


CHAPTER  I 

132.3  o 
THEi  AWAKENING 


T-TO,  my  brave  youth!  There  's  a  "Boy 
Wanted,"  and  —  how  fortunate!  — 
you  are  the  very  boy! 

Who  wants  you? 

The  big,  busy,  beautiful  world  wants 
you,  and  I  really  do  not  see  how  it  is 
going  to  get  on  well  without  you.  It  has 
awaited  your  coming  so  long,  and  has 
kept  in  store  so  many  golden  oppor- 
tunities for  you  to  improve,  it  will  be 
disappointed  if,  when  the  proper  time 
arrives,  you  do  not  smilingly  lay  hold 
and  do  something  worth  while. 

When  are  you  to  begin? 

Oh,  I  sincerely  hope  that  you  have 
already  begun  to  begin;  that  is,  that  you 
have  already  begun  to  train  your  hand 
and  head  and  heart  for  making  the  most 
of  the  opportunities  that  await  you.     In 


Nothing  is  impossi- 
ble to  the  man  who 
can  will.  — Mirabeau. 


You  will  find  poetry 
nowhere  unless  you 
bring  some  with  you. 

JOUBERT. 


Things  don't  turn 
up  in  this  world  until 
somebody  turns  them 
up. — Garfield. 


II 


"BOY      WANTED" 


Work  has  made  me 
what  I  am,  I  never 
ate  a  bit  of  idle  bread 
in  my  life.  —  Daniel 
Webster. 


In  the  blackest  soils 
grow  the  fairest  flow- 
ers, and  the  loftiest 
and  strongest  trees 
spring  heavenward 
among  the  rocks.  — 
Holland. 


Without  courage 
there  cannot  be  truth  ; 
and  without  truth 
there  can  be  no  other 
virtue.  —  Walter 
Scott. 


fact,  if  you  are  so  fortunate  as  to  own 
thoughtful,  intelligent  parents,  the  work 
of  fitting  you  for  the  victories  of  life  was 
begun  before  you  were  old  enough  to 
give  the  subject  serious  consideration. 

"When  shall  I  begin  to  train  my 
child?"  asked  a  young  mother  of  a  wise 
physician. 

"How  old  is  the  child?"  inquired  the 
doctor. 

"Two  years." 

"Then  you  have  already  lost  just  two 
years,"  was  his  serious  response. 

Oliver  Wendell  Holmes,  when  asked 
the  same  question,  said:  "You  must  be- 
gin with  the  child's  grandmother." 

But  no  matter  what  has  or  has  not  been 
done  for  you  up  to  the  present  time,  you 
and  I  know  that  from  now  on  your  future 
welfare  will  be  largely  of  your  own  mak- 
ing and  in  your  own  keeping.  If  you 
will  thoughtfully  plan  your  purpose  as 
definitely  as  conditions  will  permit  and 
then  learn  to  stick  to  it  through  thick  and 
thin,  your  success  in  life  is  quite  well 
assured,  and  you  need  not  fear  that  at  the 
end  of  the  journey  you  will  have  to  say, 
as  does  many  a  man  while  retrospectively 
viewing  his  years : 


12 


THE      AWAKENING 


O'er  life's  long  and  winding  pathway, 
Looking   backward,    I    confess 

I  have  not  at  looking  forward 
Been  a  genuine  success. 

What  is  there  for  you  to  do? 

Everything  and  anything  you  can  do 
or  care  to  do.  You  are  to  take  your  pick 
of  all  the  trades,  professions,  and  voca- 
tions of  mankind.  Look  about  you  and 
note  the  thousand  and  one  things  now 
being  done  by  the  men  of  to-day.  It  will 
not  be  so  very  long  till  all  of  these  men 
will  be  old  enough  to  retire  from  active 
service,  and  then  you  and  the  other  boys, 
who  in  the  meantime  have  grown  to 
man's  estate,  will  be  called  upon  to  per- 
form every  one  of  the  tasks  these  men  are 
now  doing.  Does  n't  it  look  as  if  there 
would  be  plenty  of  honest,  earnest,  whole- 
some toil  for  hand  and  head  in  store  for 
you  as  soon  as  you  are  ready  to  undertake 
it?  You  cannot  wonder  that  the  busy  old 
world  is  ever  and  always  hanging  out  its 
notice — 

"BOY  WANTED" 

"Wanted  —  A  Boy."    How  often  we 
This  quite  familiar  notice  see. 
Wanted  —  a  boy  for  every  kind 
Of  task  that  a  busy  world  can  find. 

13 


Vigilance  in  watch- 
ing opportunity ;  tact 
and  daring  in  seizing 
upon  opportunity; 
force  and  persistence 
in  crowding  oppor- 
tunity to  its  utmost  of 
possible  achievement 
—  these  are  the  mar- 
tial virtues  which  must 
command  success.  — 
Phelps. 


Work  is  the  inevi- 
table condition  of  hu- 
man life,  the  true 
source  of  human  wel- 
fare.— Tolstoi. 


People  do  not  lack 
strength ;  they  lack 
will. — Victor  Huca 


"BOY      WANTED" 


You  cannot  dream 
yourself  into  a  char- 
acter; you  must  ham- 
mer and  forge  one 
yourself. — Froude. 


The  truest  wisdom 
is  a  resolute  determi- 
nation. —  Napoleon. 


While  we  are  con- 
sidering when  to  be- 
gin, it  is  often  too  late 

to    act. QuiNTILIAN. 


He  is  wanted  —  wanted  now  and  here ; 
There  are  towns  to  build ;  there  are  paths  to  clear ; 
There  are  seas  to  sail ;  there  are  gulfs  to  span, 
In  the  ever  onward  march  of  man. 

Wanted  —  the  world  wants  boys  to-day 

And  it  offers  them  all  it  has  for  pay. 

T  will  grant  them  wealth,  position,  fame, 

A  useful  life,  and  an  honored  name. 

Boys  who  will  guide  the  plow  and  pen ; 

Boys  who  will  shape  the  ways  for  men ; 

Boys  who  will  forward  the  tasks  begun,  • 

For  the  world's  great  work  is  never  done. 

The  world  is  eager  to  employ 
Not  just  one,  but  every  boy 
Who,  with  a  purpose  stanch  and  true, 
Will  greet  the  work  he  finds  to  do. 
Honest,  faithful,  earnest,  kind, — 
To  good,  awake;  to  evil,  blind, — 
A  heart  of  gold  without  alloy, — 
Wanted  —  the  world  wants  such  a  boy. 

No,  the  world  does  not  insist  that  you 
are  to  accept  a  position  and  begin  work 
with  your  hands  at  once,  but  it  wishes  you 
to  begin  to  think  right  things.  "As  he 
thinketh  in  his  heart,  so  is  he."  What 
you  think  will  have  much  to  do  in  deter- 
mining what  you  are  to  become. 

The  mind  is  master  of  the  man, 
And  so  "  they  can  who  think  they  can." 
14 


THE      AWAKENING 


This  influence  of  the  mind  in  thus 
shaping  the  man  is  very  well  set  forth  by 
James  Allen,  who  says:  "A  man's  mind 
may  be  likened  to  a  garden,  which  may 
be  intelligently  cultivated  or  allowed  to 
run  wild;  but  whether  cultivated  or 
neglected,  it  must,  and  will,  bring  forth. 
If  no  useful  seeds  are  put  into  it,  then  an 
abundance  of  useless  weed-seeds  will  fall 
therein,  and  will  continue  to  produce 
their  kind.  Just  as  a  gardener  cultivates 
his  plot,  keeping  it  free  from  weeds,  and 
growing  the  flowers  and  fruits  which  he 
requires,  so  may  a  man  tend  the  garden 
of  his  mind,  weeding  out  all  the  wrong, 
useless,  and  impure  thoughts,  and  culti- 
vating toward  perfection  the  flowers  and 
fruits  of  right,  useful,  and  pure  thoughts. 
By  pursuing  this  process,  a  man  sooner 
or  later  discovers  that  he  is  the  master- 
gardener  of  his  soul,  the  director  of  his 
life.  He  also  reveals,  within  himself, 
the  laws  of  thought,  and  understands, 
with  ever-increasing  accuracy,  how  the 
thought-forces  and  mind-elements  oper- 
ate in  the  shaping  of  his  character,  cir- 
cumstances, and  destiny." 

So  it  is  not  too  early  for  you  to  begin 
to  think  bravely  and  resolutely  and  hope- 

15 


Where  boasting 
ends,  there  dignity  be- 
gins.— Young. 


Impossible  is  s 
word  found  only  in 
the  dictionary  of  fools, 
— Napoleon. 


I  am  in  earnest.  I 
will  not  equivocate.  I 
will  not  excuse.  I  will 
not  retreat  a  single 
inch;  and  I  will  be 
heard. — Garrison. 


"BOY      WANTED" 


While  you  stand  de- 
liberating which  book 
your  son  shall  read 
first,  another  boy  has 
read  both. — Dr. John- 
son. 


Dost  thou  love  life  ? 
Then  do  not  squander 
time,  for  that  is  the 
stuff  life  is  made  of. — 
Franklin. 


When  passion  is  on 
the  throne,  reason  is 
out  of  doors.  —  Mat- 
thew Henry. 


fully  Upon  the  life  you  intend  to  live,  and 
to  cultivate  the  mental  and  .physical 
strength  that  shall  help  you  later  on  to 
put  your  good  thoughts  into  permanent 
good  deeds.  Certainty  of  victory  goes 
far  toward  winning  battles  before  they 
are  fought.  The  boy  who  thinks  "I  can" 
is  much  more  likely  to  succeed  in  life 
than  is  the  one  who  thinks  "I  can't." 

"COULDN'T"    AND    "COULD" 

"Could  n't"  and  "Could"  were  two  promising  boys 

Who  lived  not  a  great  while  ago. 
They  had  just  the  same  playmates  and  just  the  same 

toys, 
And  just  the  same  chances  for  winning  life's  joys 

And  all  that  the  years  may  bestow. 

And  "Could"  soon  found  out  he  could  fashion  his  life 
On  lines  very  much  as  he  planned; 

He  could  cultivate  goodness  and  guard  against  strife ; 

He  could  have  all  his  deeds  with  good  cheer  to  be 
rife, 
And  build  him  a  name  that  would  stand. 

But    poor    little    "Couldn't"    just    couldn't    pull 
through 
All  the  trials  he  met  with  a  sigh ; 
When  a  task  needed  doing,  he  could  n't,  he  knew ; 
And  hence,  when  he  could  n't,  how  could  he?  Could 
you, 
If  you  could  n't  determine  you  'd  try? 

i6 


THE      AWAKENING 


So  "Could"  just  kept  building  his  way  to  success, 

Nor  clouding  his  sky  with  a  doubt, 
But  "Could  n't"  strayed  into  the  slough  of  Distress, 
Alas !   and  his  end  it  is  easy  to  guess  — 

Strayed  in,  but  he  could  n't  get  out. 

And  that  was  the  difference  'twixt  "Could  n't"  and 
"Could"; 
Each  followed  his  own  chosen  plan; 
And  where  "Couldn't"  just  wouldn't  "Could" 

earnestly  would, 
And  where  one  of  them  weakened  the  other  "made 
good," 
And  won  with  his  watchword,  "I  can!" 

By  reading  between  the  lines  we  can 
infer  from  the  foregoing  that  what  the 
world  really  wants  is  men — good  men. 
But  the  world  is  old  enough  and  wise 
enough  to  know  that  if  it  does  not  train 
up  some  good  boys,  there  will  be  no  good 
men,  by  and  by.  "As  the  twig  is  bent  the 
tree  is  inclined."  "The  child  is  father 
of  the  man." 

So  the  world  simply  wishes  to  inform 
you,  here  and  now,  that  it  will  count  on 
your  assistance  as  soon  as  you  have  had 
sufficient  time  and  opportunity  to  pre- 
pare properly  for  the  many  chances  it 
has  in  store  for  you.  It  notifies  you  in 
good  season  of  the  important  use  it  hopes 

17 


I  wasted  time,  and 
now  time  doth  waste 
me.  —  Shakespeare. 


Weak  men  wait  for 
opportunities,  strong 
men  make  them.  — 
Marden. 


Give  me  insight 
into  to-day,  and  you 
may  have  the  antique 
and  future  worlds. — 
Emerson. 


"BOY      WANTED" 


When  I  don't  know 
whether  to  fight  or 
not,  I  always  fight. — 
Nelson. 


What  is  a  gentle- 
man ?  I  '11  tell  you  : 
a  gentleman  is  one 
who  keeps  his  prom- 
ises made  to  those  who 
cannot  enforce  them. 
—  Hubbard. 


When  one  begins  to 
turn  in  bed  it  is  time 
to  turn  out.  —  Wel- 
lington. 


to  make  of  you.  It  does  not  wish  you  to 
be  confronted  suddenly  with  a  life  prob- 
lem you  cannot  solve  intelligently.  You 
must  be  so  well  equipped  that  you  will 
not  make  life  a  "fizzle." 

A  "fizzle,"  as  defined  by  the  diction- 
aries, is  a  bungling,  unsuccessful  under- 
taking. 

Life  is,  or  ought  to  be,  a  splendid 
undertaking.  Some  make  a  success  of  it; 
some  make  a  "fizzle;"  some  make  a  sort 
of  half-and-half.  Every  one  who  lives 
his  or  her  life  must  make  something  of 
it.  What  that  "something"  is  depends 
very  largely  on  the  individual  person. 
Heredity  has  something  to  do  with  it; 
environment  has  something  to  do  with  it; 
yet  we  like  to  think  it  is  the  individual 
who  has  most  to  do  with  the  finished 
product. 

All  men  are  to  some  degree  "self- 
made,"  although  they  are  slow  to  admit 
it  except  in  instances  where  the  work  has 
been  well  done. 

The  loser  declares  it  is  Fate's  hard  plan, 

But  the  winner — ho,  ho! — he  's  a  "self-made"  man. 

It   is   unfair   for   the   loser   to   blame 


18 


THE      AWAKENING 


others  for  his  deficiencies  and  delin- 
quencies. No  one's  reputation  is  likely 
to  sufifer  much  lasting  injury  as  long  as 
he  keeps  his  character  unspotted.  What 
others  may  say  of  us  is  not  of  so  much 


moment ; 
it  truej"' 


the  important  question  is,  "Is 


Of  strife  others  make  us,  we  've  little  to  fear 

Because  we  can  surely  defeat  it; 
Few  persons  get  into  hot  water,  't  is  clear, 

But  they  furnish  the  fuel  to  heat  it. 

On  the  other  hand  the  winner  is 
ungrateful  when  he  credits  to  his  own 
ability  the  help  and  good  influence  he 
has  derived  from  his  associates  and  his 
surroundings.  No  one  lives  by,  to,  or  for 
himself,  alone.  A  great  man  adds  to  his 
greatness  by  generously  praising  those 
who  have  aided  in  his  advancement. 

We  are,  most  of  us,  selfishly  slow  to  confess 
How  much  others  aid  us  in  winning  success ; 
But  the  Fourth  of  July  and  the  oyster  must  see 
What  failures,  without  any  crackers,  they  'd  be. 

This  timely  notice  telling  you  what  the 
world  is  going  to  ask  you  to  perform  is 
as  if  you  were  told  to  prepare  to  take 
an  extended  and  important  journey.     It 

19 


When  I  found  I 
was  black,  I  resolved 
to  live  as  if  I  were 
white,  and  so  force 
men  to  look  below  my 
skin.  —  Alexandre 
Dumas. 


Impossible?  I 
trample  upon  impossi- 
bilities!— Pitt. 


When  all  is  holi- 
day, there  are  no  hol- 
idays.— Lamb. 


"BOY 
1 


WANTED 


Let's  take  the  in- 
stant by  the  forward 
top. — Shakespeare. 


I  have  generally 
found  that  the  man 
who  is  good  at  an  ex- 
cuse is  good  for  noth- 
ing else. — Franklin. 


I  feel  and  grieve, 
but,  by  the  grace  of 
God,  I  fret  at  noth- 
ing.— John  Wesley. 


would  require  some  time  for  you  to  pro- 
cure a  trunk  and  a  traveling-bag  and  to 
select  wearing  apparel  suitable  for  the 
undertaking.  Then,  too,  you  would  need 
to  study  maps  and  time-tables  so  as  to 
select  the  best  lines  of  travel  and  to  make 
advantageous  connections  with  trains  and 
steamships.  Furthermore,  it  would  be 
for  your  best  interests  to  read  books  de- 
scribing the  countries  through  which  you 
were  to  pass,  and  to  learn  as  much  as  pos- 
sible regarding  their  peoples  and  cus- 
toms. 

As  a  matter  of  fact  you  are  preparing 
to  start  on  an  extended  and  important 
journey.  You  are  going  out  into  the  big 
world,  by  and  by,  to  do  business.  You 
are  going  into  partnership  with  the 
world,  after  a  fashion.  You  are  to  put 
into  the  business  your  honesty,  industry, 
integrity,  and  ability,  and  in  return  for 
your  contributions,  the  world  is  to  be- 
stow upon  you  all  the  honor,  fame,  good- 
will, and  happiness  of  mind  that  your 
manner  of  living  your  life  shall  merit. 
The  world  is  only  too  willing  to  bargain 
for  the  highest  and  noblest  and  best  prod- 
ucts of  the  human  mind  with  any  one 
who  can 


THE      AWAKENING 


DELIVER   THE   GOODS 

The  world  will  buy  largely  of  any  one  who 

Can  deliver  the  goods. 
It  is  ready  and  eager  to  barter  if  you 

Can  deliver  the  goods. 
But  don't  take  its  order  and  make  out  the  bill 
Unless  you  are  sure  you  '11  be  able  to  fill 
Your  contract,  because  it  won't  pay  you  until 

You  deliver  the  goods. 

The  world  rears  its  loftiest  shafts  to  the  men 

Who  deliver  the  goods. 
With  plow,  lever,  brush,  hammer,  sword,  or  with 
pen 

They  deliver  the  goods. 
And  while  we  their  eloquent  epitaphs  scan 
That  say  in  the  world's  work  they  stood  in  the  van, 
We  know  that  the  meaning  is,  "Here  lies  a  man 

Wlio  delivered  the  goods." 

And  rude  or  refined  be  your  wares,  still  be  sure 

To  deliver  the  goods. 
Though  a   king  or  a  clown,   still   remember   that 
you  're 

To  deliver  the  goods. 
If  you  find  you  are  called  to  the  pulpit  to  preach, 
To  the  grain-fields  to  till,  to  the  forum  to  teach ; 
Be  you  poet  or  porter,  remember  that  each 

Must  deliver  the  goods. 


We  can  sing  away 
our  cares  easier  than 
we  can  reason  them 
away. — Beecher. 


Trifles  make  per- 
fection, but  perfection 
is  no  trifle.  —  Michael 
Angelo. 


Anxiety  never  yet 
successfully  bridged 
over     any     chasm.  — 

RUFFINI. 


21 


PATRICK    HENRY    DELIVERING    HIS   CELEBRATED   SPEECH 


CHAPTER   II 

"AM    I    A   GENIUS?" 


"you  hope,  and  perchance  believe,  no 
doubt,  that  when  you  have  a  full  op- 
portunity to  show  the  world  what  sort  of 
timber  you  are  made  of  that  it  will  look 
upon  you  as  being  a  "genius."  Almost 
every  boy  cherishes  some  such  aspiration. 
And  why  not?  Such  a  trend  of  thought 
is  to  be  encouraged.  It  is  proper  and 
commendable.  We  would  all  be  geniuses 
if  we  could. 

The  world  admires  a  genius.  If  he  is 
the  genuine  article  it  seeks  his  autograph, 
prints  his  picture  in  books  and  news- 
papers, and  when  he  passes  away  it  is 
likely  to  build  a  monument  over  his  re- 
mains. 

And  can  we  all  be  geniuses?  Some 
say  we  can  and  some  say  we  cannot,  quite. 
Some  say  geniuses  are  born  and  some  say 
they  are  self-made. 

When  Mr.  Edison,  the  famous  electri- 

23 


True  merit  is  like  a 
river,  the  deeper  it  is 
the  less  noise  it  makes. 
—  Halifax. 


We  know  what  we 
are,  but  not  what  we 
may  be.  —  Shake- 
speare. 


Vacillation  is  the 
prominent  feature  of 
weakness  of  character. 
—  Voltaire. 


"BOY      WANTED" 


Conduct  is  three- 
fourths  of  life.  —  Em- 
erson. 


We  must  not  yield 
to  difficulties,  but 
strive  the  harder  to 
overcome  them.  — 
Robert  E.   Lee. 


Through  every 
clause  and  part  of 
speech  of  a  right  book, 
I  meet  the  eyes  of  the 
most  determined  men, 
—  Emerson. 


cian  and  inventor,  was  asked  for  his 
definition  of  genius  he  answered:  "Two 
per  cent  is  genius  and  ninety-eight  per 
cent  is  hard  work."  On  another  occasion 
when  asked:  "Mr.  Edison,  don't  you 
believe  that  genius  is  inspiration?"  he 
replied,  "No!   genius  is  perspiration."   ^ 

This  definition  of  genius  quite  agrees 
with  that  given  by  the  American  states- 
man, Alexander  Hamilton,  who  said: 
"All  the  genius  I  have  lies  in  just  this: 
When  I  have  a  subject  in  hand,  I  study 
it  profoundly.  Day  and  night  it  is  before 
me.  I  etxplore  it  in  all  its  bearings;  my 
mind  becomes  pervaded  with  it.  Then 
the  effort  which  I  make  the  people  are 
pleased  to  call  genius.  It  is  the  fruit  of 
labor  and  thought." 

Helvetius,  the  famous  French  philoso- 
pher, says:  "Genius  is  nothing  but  a 
continued  attention,"  and  Buffon  tells  us 
that  "genius  is  only  a  protracted  pa- 
tience." 

Turner,  the  great  landscape  painter, 
when  asked  how  he  had  achieved  his 
great  success,  replied:  "I  have  no  secret 
but  hard  work.  This  is  a  secret  that 
many  never  learn,  and  they  do  not  suc- 
ceed because  they  do  not  learn  it.  Labor 
24 


"AM 


A      GENIUS?" 


T 


is  the  genius  that  changes  the  world  from 
ugliness  to  beauty." 

"The  man  who  succeeds  above  his  fel- 
lows," says  Lord  Lytton,  "is  the  one  who 
early  in  life  clearly  discerns  his  object 
and  toward  that  object  habitually  directs 
his  powers.  Even  genius  itself  is  but  fine 
observation  strengthened  by  fixity  of  pur- 
pose. Every  man  who  observes  vigilantly 
and  resolves  steadfastly  grows  uncon- 
sciously into  genius." 

"Am  I  a  genius?" 

Now  that  you  have  asked  the  question, 
why  not  carefully  think  it  over  and  deter- 
mine what  the  answer  should  be?  Have 
you  patience  and  determination?  Are 
you  cultivating  the  habit  of  sticking  to 
it? 

STICK  TO   IT 

0  prim  little  postage-stamp,  "holding  your  own" 

In  a  manner  so  winning  and  gentle. 
That    you're    "stuck    on"    your    task — (is    that 
slang?) — you  will  own, 
And  yet,  you  're  not  two-cent-imental. 

1  have  noted  v»'ith  pride  that   through   thick  and 

through  thin 
You  cling  to  a  thing  till  you  do  it, 
And,  whatever  your  aim,  you  are  certain  to  win 
Because  you  seem  bound  to  stick  to  it. 

25 


All  your  Greek  will 
never  advance  you 
from  secretary  to  en- 
voy, or  from  envoy  to 
ambassador ;  but  your 
address,  your  air, 
your  manner,  if  good, 
may.  — Chesterfield. 


'Tis  the  mind  that 
makes  the  body  rich. 
—  Shakespeare. 


To  read  without  re- 
flection is  like  eating 
without  digesting.  — 
Burke. 


"BOY      WANTED" 


I  learnt  that  noth- 
ing can  constitute  good 
breeding  that  has  not 
good  nature  for  its 
foundation. — Bulwer. 


To  acquire  a  few 
tongues,  says  a  French 
writer,  is  the  task  of 
a  few  years ;  but  to 
be  eloquent  in  one  is 
the  labor  of  a  life. — 

CoLTON. 


To  be  proud  of 
learning  is  the  great- 
est ignorance. — Bish- 
op Taylor. 


Sometimes  when  I  feel  just  like  shirking  a  task 

Or  quitting  the  work  I  'm  pursuing, 
I  recall  your  stick-to-It-ive-ness  and  I  ask, 

"Would  a  postage-stamp  do  as  I  'm  doing?" 
Then  I  turn  to  whatever  my  hands  are  about 

And  with  fortified  purpose  renew  it, 
And  the  end  soon  encompass,  for  which  I  set  out, 

If,  only,  like  you,  I  stick  to  it. 

The  sages  declare  that  true  genius,  so  called, 

Is  simply  the  will  to  "keep  at  it." 
A  "won't-give-up"  purpose  is  never  forestalled, 

No  matter  what  foes  may  combat  it. 
And  most  of  mankind's  vaunted  progress  is  made, 

O  stamp !  if  the  world  only  knew  it. 
By  noting  the  wisdom  which  you  have  displayed 

In  sticking  adhesively  to  it. 

Genius  has  a  twin  brother  whose  name 
is  Patience.  The  one  is  quite  often  mis- 
taken for  the  other,  which  is  not  strange 
since  they  resemble  each  oth-er  so  closely 
their  most  intimate  friends  can  scarcely 
tell  them  apart.  These  two  brothers  usu- 
ally work  together,  which  enables  the 
world  to  tell  who  and  what  they  are,  for 
whenever  either  of  them  is  employed 
singly  and  alone  he  is  hardly  ever  recog- 
nized. 

One  of  these  brothers  plants  the  tree 
and  the  other  cares  for  it  until  the  fruit 
is  finally  matured.  The  tree  which 
26 


"AM      I      A      GENIUS?" 


Genius  plants  would  never  anwunt  to 
much  if  Patience  were  to  grow  tired  of 
watering  and  caring  for  it.  There  are 
weeds  to  be  kept  down,  branches  to  be 
pruned,  the  soil  must  be  looked  after, 
worms'-nests  must  be  destroyed,  and 
many  things  must  be  done  before  the 
fruit  is  ready  to  harvest. 

If  Patience  were  to  refuse  to  work  at 
any  time  the  whole  undertaking  would 
prove  a  failure.  But  he  does  not.  He 
performs  his  plain,  simple  duty,  day  after 
day,  year  after  year,  until,  after  long 
waiting,  there  is  the  beautiful  fruit  at 
last.  It  looks  very  pretty,  but  it  is  not 
yet  quite  ripe.  Pick  it  too  soon  and  it 
will  shrivel  up  and  lack  flavor.  But 
Patience  has  learned  to  wait  until  the  day 
and  the  hour  of  perfection  is  at  hand, 
and  lo!  there  is  his  great  reward! 

The  people  say:  "See  this  wonderful 
fruit  that  grew  on  the  tree  which  Genius 
planted!"  But  Genius,  who  is  wiser  than 
the  multitude,  says,  "See  this  wonderful 
fruit  that  grew  on  the  tree  which  Patience 
tended!" 

Patience    and    perseverance    are    the 

qualities  that  enable  one  to  work  out  his 

problems  in  school  and  his  larger  prob- 

27 


Life  is  not  so  short 
but  that  there  is  al- 
ways room  enough  for 
courtesy. — Emerson. 


A  man's  own  good 
breeding  is  the  best 
security  against  other 
people's  ill  manners. 
— Chesterfield. 


Common  sense 
bows  to  the  inevitable 
and  makes  use  of  it. — 
Wendell  Phillips, 


"BOY      WANTED" 


Above  all  things, 
reverence  yourself.  — 
Pythagoras. 


To  Adam,  Paradise 
was  home;  to  the 
good  among  his  de- 
scendants, home  is 
Paradise. — Hare, 


To  give  happiness 
is  to  deserve  happi- 
ness.  ROSSEAU. 


lems  in  the  big  university  of  the  busy 
world. 

Toil  holds  all  genius  as  his  ovrn, 
For  in  his  grasp  a  strength  is  hid 

To  make  of  polished  words  or  stone 
A  poem  or  a  pyramid. 

It  has  been  very  truly  said  that  if  we 
will  pick  up  a  grain  a  day  and  add  to  our 
heap  we  shall  soon  learn  by  happy  ex- 
perience the  power  of  littles  as  applied  to 
intellectual  processes  and  possessions. 

The  road  to  success,  says  one  of  the 
world's  philosophers,  is  not  to  be  run 
upon  by  seven-league  boots.  Step  by 
step,  little  by  little,  bit  by  bit;  that  is  the 
way  to  wealth,  that  is  the  way  to  wisdom, 
that  is  the  way  to  glory.  The  man  who 
is  most  likely  to  achieve  success  in  life  is 
the  one  who  when  a  boy  learns  to 

KEEP   PEGGING   AWAY 

Men  seldom  mount  at  a  single  bound 

To  the  ladder's  very  top ; 
They  must  slowly  climb  it,  round  by  round, 

With  many  a  start  and  stop. 
And  the  winner  is  sure  to  be  the  man 

Who  labors  day  by  day, 
For  the  world  has  learned  that  the  safest  plan 

Is  to  keep  on  pegging  away. 
28 


"AM      I 


GENIUS?" 


You  have  read,  of  course,  about  the  hare 

And  the  tortoise — the  tale  is  old — 
How  they  ran  a  race — it  counts  not  where — 

And  the  tortoise  won,  we  're  told. 
The  hare  was  sure  he  had  time  to  pause 

And  to  browse  about  and  play. 
So  the  tortoise  won  the  race  because 

He  just  kept  pegging  away. 

A  little  toil  and  a  little  rest, 

And  a  little  more  earned  than  spent, 
Is  sure  to  bring  to  an  honest  breast 

A  blessing  of  glad  content. 
And  so,  though  skies  may  frown  or  smile. 

Be  diligent  day  by  day; 
Reward  shall  greet  you  after  while 

If  you  just  keep  pegging  away. 

The  Chinese  tell  of  one  of  their  coun- 
trymen, a  student,  who,  disheartened  by 
the  difficulties  in  his  way,  threw  down 
his  book  in  despair,  when,  seeing  a 
woman  rubbing  a  crowbar  on  a  stone,  he 
inquired  the  reason,  and  was  told  that 
she  wanted  a  needle,  and  thought  she 
would  rub  down  the  crowbar  till  she  got 
it  small  enough.  Provoked  by  this  ex- 
ample of  patience  to  "try  again,"  he 
resumed  his  studies,  and  became  one  of 
the  foremost  scholars  of  the  empire. 

After  more  than  ten  years  of  wandering 

29 


Self-respect,  —  that 
corner-stone  of  all  vir- 
tues. —  John    Her- 

SCHEL. 


This,  then,  is  a 
proof  of  a  well-trained 
mind,  to  delight  in 
what  is  good,  and  to 
be  annoyed  at  the  op- 
posite.— Cicero. 


There  never  was  so 
much  room  for  the 
best  as  there  is  to-day. 
— Thayer. 


^ 


"BOY      WANTED" 


A  healthful  hunger 
for  a  great  idea  is  the 
beauty  and  blessedness 
of  life. — Jean  Inge- 
low. 


A  laugh  is  worth  a 
hundred  groans  in  any 
market. —  Lamb. 


There  is  no  real  life 
but  cheerful  life.  — 
Addison. 


through  the  unexplored  depths  of  the 
primeval  forests  of  America  in  the  study 
of  birds  and  animals,  Audubon  deter- 
mined to  publish  the  results  of  his  pains- 
taking energy.  He  went  to  Philadelphia 
with  a  portfolio  of  two  hundred  sheets, 
filled  with  colored  delineations  of  about 
one  thousand  birds,  drawn  life-size.  Be- 
ing obliged  to  leave  the  city  before 
making  final  arrangements  as  to  their  dis- 
position, he  placed  his  drawings  in  the 
warehouse  of  a  friend.  On  his  return  in 
a  few  weeks  he  found  to  his  utter  dismay 
that  the  precious  fruits  of  his  wanderings 
had  been  utterly  destroyed  by  rats.  The 
shock  threw  him  into  a  fever  of  several 
weeks'  duration,  but  with  returning 
health  his  native  energy  came  back,  and 
taking  up  his  gun  and  game-bag,  his  pen- 
cils and  drawing-book,  he  went  forward 
to  the  forests  as  gaily  as  if  nothing  had 
happened.  He  set  to  work  again,  pleased 
with  the  thought  that  he  might  now  make 
better  drawings  than  he  had  done  before, 
and  in  three  years  his  portfolio  was 
refilled. 

When   Carlyle  had  finished  the  first 
volume  of  his  "French  Revolution"  he 
lent  the  manuscript  to  a  friend  to  read. 
30 


AM      I      A      GENIUS?" 


A  maid,  finding  what  she  supposed  to  be 
a  bundle  of  waste  paper  on  the  parlor 
floor  used  it  to  light  the  kitchen  fire. 
Without  spending  any  time  in  uttering 
lamentations,  the  author  set  to  work  and 
triumphantly  reproduced  the  book  in 
the  form  in  which  it  now  appears. 

"How  hard  I  worked  at  that  tremen- 
dous shorthand,  and  all  improvement 
appertaining  to  it!  I  will  only  add  to 
what  I  have  already  written  of  persever- 
ance at  this  time  of  my  life,  and  of  a 
patient  and  continuous  energy  which  then 
began  to  be  matured  within  me,  and 
which  I  know  to  be  the  strong  point  of 
my  character,  if  it  have  any  strength  at 
all,  that  there,  on  looking  back,  I  find  the 
source  of  my  success."  Such  is  Charles 
Dickens's  testimony  to  the  value  of  stick- 
ing to  it. 

One  of  the  clever  characters  created 
by  the  pen  of  George  Horace  Lorimer 
says:  "Life  isn't  a  spurt,  but  a  long, 
steady  climb.  You  can't  run  far  up  hill 
without  stopping  to  sit  down.  Some  men 
do  a  day's  work,  and  then  spend  six  lolling 
around  admiring  it.  They  rush  at  a  thing 
with  a  whoop  and  use  up  all  their  wind 
in  that.     And  when  they  've  rested  and 

3> 


A  man  is  rich  in 
proportion  to  the 
things  he  can  afford  to 
let  alone. — Thoreau. 


There  is  one  thing 
in  this  world  better 
than  making  a  living, 
and  that  is  making  a 
life.  —  RussEiL. 


A  man  must  be  one 
of  two  things;  either 
a  reed  shaken  by  the 
wind,  or  a  wind  to 
shake  the  reeds.  — 
Handford. 


"BOY      WANTED" 


There  is  nothing  at 
all  in  life  except  what 
we  put  there. —  Ma- 
dame  SWETCHINE. 


He  is,  in  my  opin- 
ion, the  noblest  who 
has  raised  himself  by 
his  own  merit  to  a 
higher  station.  — 
Cicero. 


A  page  digested  is 
better  than  a  volume 
hurriedly  read. — 
Macaulay. 


got  it  back,  they  whoop  again  and  start 
off  in  a  new  direction." 

Says  the  poet,  James  Whitcomb  Riley, 
"Fof  twenty  years  I  tried  to  get  into  one 
magazine;  back  came  my  manuscripts 
eternally.  I  kept  on.  In  the  twentieth 
year  that  magazine  accepted  one  of  my 
articles." 

The  eminent  essayist,  William  Math- 
ews, tells  us:  "The  restless,  uneasy,  dis- 
contented spirit  which  sends  a  mechanic 
from  the  East  to  the  South,  the  Rocky 
Mountains,  or  California,  renders  con- 
tinuous application  anywhere  irksome  to 
him,  and  so  he  goes  wandering  about  the 
world,  a  half-civilized  Arab,  getting  the 
confidence  of  nobody,  and  almost  sure  to 
die  insolvent." 

The  boys  who  stick  to  it,  and  the  men 
w^ho  stick  to  it,  are  the  ones  who  achieve 
results.  It  does  not  pay  to  scatter  one's 
energies.  If  a  man  cannot  succeed  at  one 
thing  he  is  even  less  likely  to  succeed  at 
many  things.  Just  here  would  be  a  good 
place,  I  think,  to  tell  how  Johnny's 
father  taught  him 

THE  SECRET  OF  SUCCESS 
One  day,  in  huckleberry-time,  when  little  Johnny 
Wales 
32 


jri 


A      GENIUS?" 


And   half-a-dozen  other   bo3-s   were   starting  with 

their  pails 
To  gather  berries,  Johnn)''s  pa,  in  talking  with  him, 

said 
That  he  could  tell  him  how  to  pick  so  he  'd  come 

out  ahead. 
"First  find  your  bush,"  said  Johnny's  pa,  "and  then 

stick  to  it  till 
You  've  picked  it  clean.     Let  those  go  chasing  all 

about  who  will 
In  search  of  better  bushes,  but  it 's  picking  tells,  my 

son; 
To  look  at  fifty  bushes  does  n't  count  like  picking 

one. 

And  Johnny  did  as  he  was  told,  and,  sure  enough, 

he  found 
By  sticking  to  his  bush  while  all  the  others  chased 

around 
In  search  of  better  picking,  it  was  as  his  father  said ; 
For  while  the  others  looked,  he  worked,  and  thus 

came  out  ahead. 
And  Johnny  recollected  this  M^hen  he  became  a  man, 
And  first  of  all  he  laid  him  out  a  well-determined 

plan; 
So,  while  the  brilliant  triflers  failed  with  all  their 

brains  and  push. 
Wise,  steady-going  Johnny  won  by  "sticking  to  his 

bush." 


He  that  can  have 
patience  can  have 
what  he  will. — Frank- 
lin. 


Thinking  is  the 
talking  of  the  soul  with 
itself.  —  Plato. 


A  man  who  dares 
waste  an  hour  of  time 
has  not  discovered  the 
value  of  time. — Dar- 
win. 


33 


CHAPTER  III 


OPPORTUNITY 


T  F  you  just  get  a  chance? 

Oh,  certainly,  it  would  be  unfair 
for  us  grown-ups  to  expect  you,  a  mere 
inexperienced  youth,  to  win  without  giv- 
ing you  a  fair  opportunity. 

But  what  is  a  fair  opportunity? 

Opinions  regarding  what  is  best  for  the 
making  of  a  boy  differ  greatly.  Some 
assert  that  a  child  born  with  a  silver  spoon 
in  its  mouth  is  not  likely  to  breathe  as 
deeply  and  develop  as  well  as  one  that  is 
born  without  any  such  hindrance  to  full 
respiration. 

Kind  parents,  a  good  home  training,  a 
chance  to  go  to  school,  influential  friends, 
good  health,  and  some  one  to  stand  be- 
tween you  and  the  hard  knocks  of  the 
world  all  serve  to  make  a  boy's  surround- 
ings truly  enviable.  Under  such  con- 
ditions any  boy  ought  to  win.  Yet  some 
boys  have  won  without  these  advantages. 

Abraham  Lincoln  was  born  of  very 

35 


There  is  nothing 
impossible  to  him  who 
will  try. — Alexander. 


The  winds  and  the 
waves  are  always  on 
the  side  of  the  ablest 
navigators.  —  Gibbon. 


He  that  studieth  re- 
venge keepeth  his  own 
wounds  green.  — 
Bacon. 


"BOY      WANTED" 


The  two  noblest 
things  are  sweetness 
and  light. — Swift. 


The  wise  prove, 
and  the  foolish  con- 
fess, by  their  conduct, 
that  a  life  of  employ- 
ment is  the  only  life 
worth  leading. — 
Paley. 


The  world  belongs 
to  the  energetic.  — 
Emerson. 


poor  parents  in  a  very  crude  cabin.  Some 
years  later  the  family  passed  through  a 
long,  cold,  Indiana  winter  with  no  shelter 
but  a  shed  built  of  poles,  open  on  one  side 
to  the  frosts  and  snows.  Even  when  a 
cabin  took  the  place  of  this  rude  "camp" 
it  was  left  several  years,  we  are  told,  with- 
out floor,  doors  or  windows.  His  biogra- 
phers inform  us  that  here  in  the  primeval 
forest  Abraham  Lincoln  spent  his  boy- 
hood. His  bed  of  leaves  was  raised  from 
the  ground  by  poles,  resting  upon  one  side 
in  the  interstices  of  the  logs  of  which  the 
hut  was  built,  and  upon  the  other  in 
crotches  of  sticks  driven  into  the  earth. 
The  skins  of  animals  afforded  almost  the 
only  covering  allowed  this  truly  misera- 
ble family.  Their  food  was  of  the  sim- 
plest and  coarsest  variety  and  very  scarce. 
Here  Mrs.  Lincoln  died  when  Abraham 
was  nine  years  old,  and  her  lifeless  form 
was  placed  in  a  rude  coffin  which  Abra- 
ham's father  made  with  his  own  hands. 
The  grave  was  dug  in  a  cleared  space  in 
the  forest  and  there  Nancy  Hanks  Lin- 
coln was  buried.  Many  months  passed 
before  it  was  practicable  to  secure  a 
preacher  who,  when  he  came,  gathered 
the  family  about  him  in  the  woods  and 
36 


OPPORTUNITY 


spoke  a  few  words  over  the  mound  of  sod. 
When  fame  had  come,  Mr.  Lincoln  used 
to  say  that  he  never  attended  school  for 
more  than  six  months  in  all  his  life — in  no 
spirit  of  boastfulness,  however,  like  many 
a  self-made  American,  but  with  a  regret 
that  was  deeply  felt.  While  a  boy  he 
worked  out  his  sums  on  the  logs  and  clap- 
boards of  the  little  cabin,  evincing  the 
fondness  for  mathematics  that  remained 
with  him  through  life.  But  even  amid 
his  dark  isolation  some  light  found  its 
way  to  his  slowly  expanding  mind.  He 
got  hold  of  a  copy  of  ''Aesop's  Fables," 
read  "Robinson  Crusoe"  and  borrowed 
Weems's  "Life  of  Washington,"  filling 
his  mind  with  the  story  of  that  noble 
character.  One  night  after  he  had 
climbed  up  the  pegs,  which  served  as  a 
ladder  to  reach  his  cot,  which  in  the  more 
finished  condition  of  the  cabin  had  been 
placed  in  the  attic,  he  hid  the  book  under 
the  rafters.  The  rain  which  came  in  be- 
fore morning  soaked  the  leaves  so  that  he 
was  compelled  to  go  to  the  farmer  from 
whom  he  had  borrowed  the  book  and 
offer  to  make  good  the  loss.  That  un- 
philanthropic  neighbor  exacted  as  its 
price  three  days'  work  in  the  corn-field, 

37 


He  who  hurts  oth- 
ers injures  himself;  he 
who  helps  others  ad- 
vances his  own  inter- 
ests.—  Buddha. 


He  that  sips  of 
many  arts  drinks  of 
none. —  Fuller. 


There  is  a  higher 
law  than  the  constitu- 
tion. —  William  H. 
Seward. 


BOY      WANTED" 


He  that  has  no 
cross  will  have  no 
crown. — QuARLEs. 


/ 

A  strenuous    soul 

hates  a  cheap  success. 
— Emerson.  , 


All  that  is  great  in 
man  comes  through 
work,  and  civilization 
is  its  product.  — 
Smiles. 


and  at  the  end  of  that  time  the  damaged 
volume  came  into  the  youthful  Abraham's 
absolute  possession.  It  was  a  long  way 
from  those  rude  surroundings  to  the 
presidential  chair  in  the  White  House  at 
Washington,  but  "with  malice  toward 
none,  with  charity  for  all,  with  firmness 
in  the  right,  as  God  gives  us  to  see  the 
right,"  he  made  the  journey  to  the  glory 
of  himself  and  the  American  people. 

What  a  fine  demonstration  of  the  power 
and  efficacy  of  self-help!  It  is  quite 
enough  to  convince  any  boy  that  there  is 
no  difficulty  he  cannot  overcome  when 
once  he  has  formed  an  invincible  partner- 
ship betv^^een 

"MYSELF  AND   I" 

Myself  and  I  close  friends  have  been 

Since  'way  back  where  we  started. 
We  two,  amid  life's  thick  and  thin, 

Have  labored  single-hearted. 
In  every  season,  wet  or  dry, 

Or  fair  or  stormy  weather. 
We  've  joined  our  hands,  myself  and  I, 

And  just  worked  on  together. 

Though  many  friends  have  been  as  kind 

And  loving  as  a  brother. 
Myself  and  I  have  come  to  find 

Our  best  friends  in  each  other, 
38 


OPPORTUNITY 


For  while  to  us  obscure  and  small 

May  seem  the  tasks  they  bend  to, 
We  've  learned  our  fellow-men  have  all 

They  and  themselves  can  tend  to. 

Myself  and  I,  and  we  alone, 

You  and  yourself,  good  neighbor, 
Each  in  his  self-determined  zone 

Must  find  his  field  of  labor. 
That  prize  which  men  have  called  "success" 

Has  joy  nor  pleasure  in  it 
To  satisfy  the  soul  unless 

Myself  and  I  shall  win  it. 

Dr.  Arnold,  whose  long  experience 
with  youth  at  Rugby  gave  weight  to  his 
opinion,  declared  that  "the  difference  be- 
tween one  boy  and  another  consists  not 
so  much  in  talent  as  in  energy."  "The 
longer  I  live,"  says  Sir  Thomas  Buxton, 
another  student  of  human  character,  "the 
more  certain  I  am  that  the  great  differ- 
ence between  men,  between  the  great  and 
the  insignificant,  is  energy,  invincible 
determination,  an  honest  purpose  once 
fixed,  and  then  death  or  victory.  This 
quality  will  do  anything  in  the  world; 
and  no  talents,  no  circumstances,  will 
make  a  two-legged  creature  a  man  with- 
out it." 

Says  an  old  Latin  proverb:    "Oppor- 

39 


Ability  and  neces- 
sity dwell  near  each 
other. —  Pythagoras. 


The    only  amaran- 
thine flower  IS  virtue. 

—  COWPER. 


The  secret  of  suc- 
cess is  constancy  to 
purpose.  —  Beacons- 
field. 


BOY      WANTED" 


The  only  knowl- 
edge that  a  man  has 
is  the  knowledge  he 
can  use. — Macaulay. 


What  sculpture  is 
to  a  block  of  marble, 
education  is  to  a  hu- 
man  soul. — Addison. 


There  is  a  sufficient 
recompense  in  the 
very  consciousness  of  a 
noble  deed. — Cicero. 


tunity  has  hair  in  front,  but  is  bald  be- 
hind.    Seize  him  by  the  forelock." 

When  Thomas  A.  Edison  went  out  into 
the  world  to  make  his  way,  he  had 
received  only  two  months'  regular  school- 
ing, but  his  mother  had  early  impressed 
upon  his  mind  the  thought  that  he  must 
atone  for  his  lack  of  school  training  by 
developing  a  taste  for  reading.  His  biog- 
raphers tell  us  that  the  *' Penny  Ency- 
clopedia" and  Ure's  "History  of  the  Sci- 
ences" were  in  his  hands  at  a  time  when 
most  boys,  having  become  acquainted 
with  stories  of  adventure,  look  for  mys- 
tery in  every  bush  and  resolve  to  become 
pirates  and  Indian  fighters.  There  are 
many  stories  of  his  early  acuteness.  One 
relates  how  when  a  boy  of  twelve  or 
fourteen  he  was  employed  in  selling 
papers  on  a  railroad  train  in  Michigan, 
and  upon  receiving  advance  news  of  a 
battle  of  the  Rebellion  fought  at  that  time 
he  secured  fifteen  hundred  papers  on 
credit,  telegraphed  the  headlines  to  the 
stations  along  the  route,  and  sold  his  wares 
at  a  premium.  It  was  after  this  exploit 
that  he  conceived  the  idea  of  starting  a 
daily  paper  of  his  own.  Securing  some 
old  type  from  the  "Detroit  Free  Press," 
40 


OPPORTUNITY 


he  set  up  his  establishment  in  a  car  and 
began  the  publication  of  the  "Grand 
Trunk  Herald,"  the  first  newspaper  ever 
published  on  a  train.  He  also  installed 
in  the  car  a  laboratory  for  making  experi- 
ments in  chemistry,  and  both  his  news- 
paper and  his  experiments  flourished 
until  one  unlucky  day  when  he  set  fire  to 
the  car  with  phosphorus.  This  was  too 
much  for  the  conductor  who  promptly 
threw  the  young  editor  and  scientist 
with  all  his  belongings  out  on  the  station 
platform,  and  in  addition  boxed  his  ears 
so  roughly  as  to  cause  him  to  be  ever 
after  partly  deaf.  But  misfortune  could 
not  dampen  his  ardor.  His  lack  of 
schooling  was  more  than  atoned  for  by 
his  grit,  ambition  and  studious  habits. 
With  the  possession  of  these  qualities 
and  the  disposition  to  make  the  most 
of  spare  moments,  this  famous  physicist, 
chemist,  mechanician,  and  inventor  has 
done  more  for  himself,  and  more  for 
humanity  and  the  advancement  of  civili- 
zation than  any  of  the  college-bred  work- 
ers in  industrial  sciences  during  the  last 
half-century. 

"Yesterday's  successes  belong  to  yester- 
day with  all  of  yesterday's  defeats  and 

41 


The  only  failure  a 
man  ought  to  fear  is 
failure  in  cleaving  to 
the  purpose  he  sees 
to  be  best. — George 
Eliot. 


The  secret  of  suc- 
cess in  life  is  for  a  man 
to  be  ready  for  his 
opportunity  when  it 
comes. —  Disraeli. 


He  needs  no  tears 
who  lived  a  noble  life. 
— FiTz  James  O'Brien. 


BOY      WANTED" 


I  don't  think  much 
of  a  man  who  is  not 
wiser  to-day  than  he 
was  yesterday.  — 
Abraham  Lincoln. 


Hurry  not  only 
spoils  work,  but  spoils 
life  also. — Lubbock. 


I  cannot  hear  what 
you  say  for  listening 
to  what  you  are. — 
Emerson. 


sorrows,"  says  a  present  day  philosopher. 
"The  day  is  here!    The  time  is  now!" 

RIGHT   HERE   AND   JUST   NOW 

"If  I  'd  'a'  been  born,"  says  Sy  Slocum  to  me, 

"In  some  other  far-away  clime, 
Or  if  I  could  'a'  had  my  existence,"  says  he, 

"In  some  other  long-ago  time, 
I  know  I  'd  'a'  flourished  in  prettj^  fine  style 

And  set  folks  a-talkin',  I  'low^ 
But  what  troubles  me  is  there 's  nothin'  worth 
while 

A-doin'  right  here  and  just  now." 

"Them  folks  that  can  dwell  in  a  country,"  says  Sy, 

"AVhere  they  don't  have  no  winter  nor  storm, 
And  the  weather  ain't  ready  to  freeze  'em  or  fry, 

By  gettin'  too  cold  or  too  warm. 
Have  got  all  the  time  that  they  want  to  sit  down 

And  think  out  a  project  so  great 
That  it 's  just  about  certain  to  win  'em  renown 

And  bring  'em  success  while  they  wait." 

Says  Sy,  "Folks  a-livin'  here  ages  ago, 

Before  all  the  chances  had  flown 
For  makin'  a  hit,  would  n't  stand  any  show 

To-day  at  a-holdin'  their  own. 
Good  times  will  come  back  to  our  planet,  I  'low, 

When  I  've  faded  out  of  the  scene ; 
But  it  hurts  me  to  think  that  right  here  and  just 
now 

Is  a  sorry  betwixt  and  between." 


42 


OPPORTUNITY 


At  that  I  got  tired  a-hearing'  Sy  spout, 

And  says  I,  "Sy,  you  like  to  enthuse 
Regardin'  the  marvelous  work  j^ou  'd  turn  out 

If  you  stood  in  some  other  man's  shoes; 
But  while   all   your   'might-'a'-been'   praises  you 
sing, 

It 's  worth  while  recallin'  as  how 
That  no  man  on  earth  ever  does  the  first  thing 

That  he  can't  do  right  here  and  just  now!" 

Jean  Paul  Richter,  who  suffered 
greatly  from  poverty,  said  that  he  would 
not  have  been  rich  for  worlds. 

"I  began  life  with  a  sixpence,"  said 
Girard,  "and  believe  that  a  man's  best 
capital  is  his  industry." 

Thomas  Ball,  the  sculptor,  whose  fine 
statues  ornament  the  parks  and  squares 
of  Boston,  used  as  a  lad  to  sweep  out  the 
halls  of  the  Boston  Museum.  Horace 
Greeley,  journalist  and  orator,  was  the 
son  of  a  poor  New  Hampshire  farmer 
and  for  years  earned  his  living  by  type- 
setting. Thorwaldsen,  the  great  Danish 
sculptor,  was  the  son  of  humble  Icelandic 
fisher-folk,  but  by  study  and  perseverance 
he  became  one  of  the  greatest  of  modern 
sculptors.  In  the  Copenhagen  museum 
alone  are  six  hundred  examples  of  his  art. 

Benjamin   Franklin,  philosopher  and 

43 


Honest  labor  wears 
a  lovely  face.  — 
Decker. 


I  am  a  part  of  all 
that  I  have  seen. — 
Tennyson. 


If  it  is  not  right,  do 
not  do  it;  if  it  is  not 
true,  do  not  say  it. — 
Marcus  Aurelius. 


"BOY      WANTED" 


A  thing  is  never  too 
often  repeated  which 
is  never  sufficiently 
learned . — Seneca  . 


Any  man  may  com- 
mit a  mistake,  but 
none  but  a  fool  will 
continue  in  it. — 
Cicero. 


As  a  matter  of  fact, 
a  man's  first  duty  is  to 
mind  his  own  busi- 
ness.  LORIMER. 


statesman,  was  the  son  of  a  tallow-chand- 
ler, and  was  the  fifteenth  child  in  a 
family -of  seventeen  children.  This  would 
seem  to  go  far  toward  proving  that  it 
is  no  misfortune  to  be  born  into  a  home 
of  many  brothers  and  sisters.  Lord  Ten- 
nyson, too,  was  the  third  child  in  a  family 
of  eleven  children,  all  born  within  a 
period  of  thirteen  years.  They  formed  a 
joyous,  lively  household,  amusements 
being  agreeably  mingled  with  their  daily 
tasks.  They  were  all  handsome  and 
gifted,  with  marked  personal  traits  and 
imaginative  temperaments.  They  were 
very  fond  of  reading  and  story-telling. 
At  least  four  of  the  boys — Frederick, 
Charles,  Alfred,  and  Edward — were 
given  to  verse-writing. 

John  Bunyan,  author  of  "Pilgrim's 
Progress,"  which  is  said  to  have  obtained 
a  larger  circulation  than  any  other  book 
in  English  except  the  Bible,  was  a  tinker. 
Linnaeus,  the  great  Swedish  botanist, 
and  most  influential  naturalist  of  the 
eighteenth  century,  was  a  shoemaker's 
apprentice. 

George  Stephenson,  the  English  en- 
gineer and  inventor,  was  in  his  youth  a 
stoker  in  a  colliery,  learning  to  read  and 

44 


OPPORTUNITY 


write  at  a  workingmen's  evening  school. 
Sir  Richard  Arkwright,  inventor  of  the 
spinning-jenny,  and  founder  of  the  great 
cotton  industries  of  England,  never  saw 
the  inside  of  a  school-house  until  after 
he  was  twenty  years  of  age,  having  long 
served  as  a  barber's  assistant. 

John  Jacob  Astor  began  life  as  a  ped- 
dler in  the  streets  of  New  York,  where 
his  descendants  now  own  real  estate 
worth  hundreds  of  millions. 

Shakespeare  in  his  youth  was  a  wool- 
carder. 

Thousands  of  other  examples  might 
be  mentioned  to  show  that  lowly  birth  is 
no  barrier  to  lofty  attainment.  It  has 
been  truly  said  that  genius  ignores  all 
social  barriers  and  springs  forth  wherever 
heaven  has  dropped  the  seed.  The  grand- 
est characters  known  in  art,  literature, 
and  the  useful  inventions,  have  illustrated 
the  axiom  that  "brave  deeds  are  the  ances- 
tors of  brave  men,"  and,  as  Ballou  has 
told  us,  "it  would  almost  appear  that  an 
element  of  hardship  is  necessary  to  the 
effective  development  of  true  genius.  In- 
deed, when  we  come  to  the  highest 
achievements  of  the  greatest  minds,  it 
seems  that  they  were  not  limited  by  race, 

45 


Books  are  light- 
houses erected  in  the 
great  sea  of  time. — 
Whipple. 


Civility  costs  noth- 
ing and  buys  every- 
thing.—  Lady  Mon- 
tague. 


Cheerful  looks  make 
every  dish  a  feast. — 
Massinger. 


BOY      WANTED" 


Character,  good  or 
bad,  has  a  tendency 
to  perpetuate  itself. — 
Hodge. 


Do  not  hang  a  dis- 
mal picture  on  your 
wall,  and  do  not  deal 
with  sables  and  glooms 
in  your  conversations. 
—  Emerson. 


Pray  for  a  short 
memory  as  to  all  un- 
kindnesses. —  Spur- 


condition  of  life,  or  the  circumstances  of 
their  age." 

So  we  see  that  it  is  something  within 
the  boy  rather  than  conditions  about  him 
that  is  to  determine  what  he  is  to  become. 
A  boy  with  a  good  mind  with  which  to 
think  and  a  determination  to  do,  is  pretty 
sure  of  doing  something  worth  while. 
The  whole  world  knows  that  so  much 
depends  on  whether  or  not  the  boy  culti- 
vates a  determination  to 

KEEP  A-TRYING 

Say  "I  will !"  and  then  stick  to  it — 
That 's  the  only  way  to  do  it. 
Don't  build  up  a  while  and  then 
Tear  the  whole  thing  down  again. 
Fix  the  goal  you  wish  to  gain, 
Then  go  at  it  heart  and  brain, 
And,  though  clouds  shut  out  the  blue, 
Do  not  dim  your  purpose  true 

With  your  sighing. 
Stand  erect,  and,  like  a  man, 
Know  "They  can  who  think  they  can!" 

Keep  a-trying. 

Had  Columbus,  half  seas  o'er, 
Turned  back  to  his  native  shore. 
Men  would  not,  to-day,  proclaim 
Round  the  world  his  deathless  name. 

46 


OPPORTUNITY 


So  must  we  sail  on  with  him 

Past  horizons  far  and  dim, 

Do  to-day  thy  near 

Till  at  last  we  own  the  prize 

est  duty. —  Goethe. 

That  belongs  to  him  who  tries 

With  faith  undying; 

Own  the  prize  that  all  may  win 

Who,  with  hope,  through  thick  and  thin 

Keep  a-trjung. 

4; 


CHAPTER  IV 


OVER   AND    UNDERDOING 


T    EARN  to  do,  without  overdoing. 

Too  much  striving  for  success  is 
as  bad  as  too  little. 

Bishop  Hall  says:  "Moderation  is  the 
silken  string  running  through  the  pearl 
chain  of  all  virtues." 

"You  have  too  much  respect  upon  the 
world,"  Shakespeare  tells  us.  "They 
lose  it  that  do  buy  it  with  much  care." 

Do  not  cram  books  into  your  head  un- 
til you  crowd  pleasant  thinking  out  of  it. 

A  moderately  informed  man  standing 
firmly  on  his  two  good  legs  is  a  much 
superior  man  to  the  wise  professor  who 
is  unable  to  leave  his  bed. 

"What  is  a  man  profited,  if  he  shall 
gain  the  whole  world,  and  lose  his  own 
soul?"  And  what  does  it  profit  him  if  he 
shall  become  a  multi-millionaire  and  lose 
his  health  of  mind  or  body? 
'  Success  that  costs  more  than  it  is  worth 
is  failure. 


K^ 


If  you  will  not  hear 
reason,  she  will  surely 
rap  your  knuckles. — 
Franklin. 


The  only  true  con- 
quests —  those  which 
awaken  no  regrets  — 
are  those  obtained  over 
our  ignorance. —  Na- 
poleon. 


The  occasion  is 
piled  high  with  dif- 
ficulty, and  we  must 
rise  high  with  the 
occasion.  —  Abraham 

LiN'COLN. 


49 


"BOY      WANTED" 


If  you  want  to  be 
missed  by  your  friends, 
be  useful.  —  Robert 
E.  Lee. 


The  man  of  grit 
carries  in  his  presence 
a  power  which  spares 
him  the  necessity  of 
resenting  insult. — 
Whipple. 


If  you  would  create 
something  you  must  be 
something. — Goethe. 


Make  haste  slowly.  Be  ambitious  but 
not  foolish.    '~    >v.>£4>%^  Vvd;&A^>^«.«,--^ 

Learn  a  few  things  and  learn  them 
well.  He  who  grasps  much  holds  little. 
Upon  investigating  the  fund  of  informa- 
tion possessed  by  a  great  many  young 
persons  it  has  been  found  that  the  mat- 
ter with  it  is  the  "smatter." 

Herbert  Spencer  says  the  brains  of 
precocious  children  cease  to  develop  after 
a  certain  age,  like  a  plant  that  fails  to 
flower. 

"Those  unhappy  children  who  are 
forced  to  rise  too  early  in  their  classes 
are  conceited  all  the  forenoon  of  their 
lives  and  stupid  all  the  afternoon,"  says 
Professor  Huxley.  "The  keenness  and 
vitality  which  should  have  been  stored 
up  for  the  sharp  struggle  of  practical  ex- 
istence have  been  washed  out  of  them  by 
precocious  mental  debauchery,  by  book- 
gluttony  and  lesson-bibbing.  Their  fac- 
ulties are  worn  out  by  the  strain  put  upon 
their  callow  brains,  and  they  are  demor- 
alized by  worthless,  childish  triumphs 
before  the  real  tasks  of  life  begin." 

Carlyle's  words  upon  this  subject  are 
worth  remembering:  "The  richer  a  na- 
ture, the  harder  and  slower  its  develop- 
50 


OVER      AND      UNDERDOING 


/■ 


ment.  Two  boys  were  once  members  of 
a  class  in  the  Edinburgh  Grammar 
School:  John,  ever  trim,  precise,  and  a 
dux;  Walter,  ever  slovenly,  confused,  and 
a  dolt.  In  due  time  John  became  Baillie 
John,  of  Hunter  Square,  and  Walter  be- 
came Sir  Walter  Scott,  of  the  universe. 
The  quickest  and  completest  of  all  vege- 
tables is  the  cabbage." 

We  all  know  that  there  is  a  happy 
medium  between  too  much  preciseness 
and  slovenliness;  between  laziness  and 
an  unwarranted  degree  of  mental  activ- 
ity; between  ignorance  and  an  intellect 
ground  to  an  edge  too  fine  to  carve  its 
way  through  a  hard  world. 

*'It  is  now  generally  conceded  on  all 
hands,"  says  Professor  Mathews,  "that 
the  mind  has  no  right  to  build  itself  up  at 
the  expense  of  the  body;  that  it  is  no  more 
justifiable  in  abandoning  itself  without 
restraint  to  its  cravings,  than  the  body  in 
yielding  itself  to  sensual  indulgence.  The 
acute  stimulants,  the  mental  drams,  that 
produce  this  unnatural  activity  or  over- 
growth of  the  intellect,  are  as  contrary  to 
nature,  and  as  hurtful  to  the  man,  as  the 
coarser  stimulants  that  unduly  excite  the 
body.    The  mind,  it  has  been  well  said, 

51 


Manners  must 
adorn  knowledge  and 
smooth  its  way  through 

the  world. — Chester- 


Many  men  owe  the 
grandeur  of  their  lives 
to  their  tremendous 
difficulties. —  Spur- 

GEON. 


The  least  error 
should  humble,  but  we 
should  never  permit 
even  the  greatest  to 
discourage  us. — Bishop 
Potter. 


"BOY      WANTED" 


The  most  manifest 
sign  of  wisdom  is  con- 
tinued cheerfulness. — 
Montaigne. 


Men  are  born  with 
two  eyes,  but  with 
one  tongue,  in  order 
that  they  may  see 
twice  as  much  as  they 
say. — CoLTON. 


The  important 
thing  in  life  is  to  have 
a  great  aim,  and  to 
possess  the  aptitude 
and  perseverance  to 
attain  it.  —  Goethe. 


should  be  a  good,  strong,  healthy  feeder, 
but  not  a  glutton.  When  unduly  stimu- 
lated, .it  wears  out  the  mechanism  of  the 
body,  like  friction  upon  a  machine  not 
lubricated,  and  the  growing  weakness  of 
the  physical  frame  nullifies  the  power 
it  incloses." 

The  foundations  for  a  splendid  work- 
ing constitution  are  laid  during  boyhood. 

You  are  laying  yours  now. 

Is  it  to  be  a  good,  firm,  durable  foun- 
dation that  will  stand  through  all  the 
years  to  come?  Or  is  it  being  built  of 
faulty  material  and  in  a  manner  so  care- 
less that  in  the  by  and  by  when,  at  great 
pains  and  expense  you  have  built  your 
life  structure  upon  it,  you  will  find  it 
untenable  or  so  unstable  that  it  will  re- 
quire a  great  share  of  your  time  and  atten- 
tion to  keep  it  patched  up  so  that  you  can 
continue  to  dwell  within  it? 

Are  you  playing  and  working  with 
moderation  or  are  you  so  thoughtless  that 
you  sometimes,  in  a  single  hour,  inflict 
wrongs  upon  your  health  and  your  con- 
stitution, the  sorry  effects  of  which  you 
cannot  overcome  during  your  lifetime? 

It  may  be  possible  that  you  are  studying 
too  hard  at  school. 
52 


OVER      AND      UNDERDOING 


I  know  that  there  are  many  who  will 
smile  at  the  suggestion  that  the  average 
American  schoolboy  sticks  too  closely  to 
his  books,  but  I  am  sure  that  such  is  fre- 
quently the  case. 

Sometimes  the  boy's  parents  and  teach- 
ers are  eager  to  have  their  boy  "show  off" 
to  the  best  advantage  possible.  They 
urge  him,  crowd  him,  compel  him  to 
develop  as  rapidly  as  he  can.  In  their 
eagerness  to  secure  results  they  employ 
the  formulas  that  require  the  least  pos- 
sible time  for  completing  the  important 
task  of 

MAKING  A  MAN 

Hurry  the  baby  as  fast  as  you  can, 
Hurry  him,  worry  him,  make  him  a  man. 
Off  with  his  baby-clothes,  get  him  in  pants, 
Feed  him  on  brain-foods  and  make  him  advance. 
Hustle  him,  soon  as  he  's  able  to  walk, 
Into  a  grammar  school ;  cram  him  with  talk. 
Fill  his  poor  head  full  of  figures  and  facts, 
Keep  on  a-jamming  them  in  till  it  cracks. 
Once  boys  grew  up  at  a  rational  rate, 
Now  we  develop  a  man  while  you  wait. 
Rush  him  through  college,  compel  him  to  grab 
Of  every  known  subject  a  dip  and  a  dab. 
Get  him  in  business  and  after  the  cash 
All  by  the  time  he  can  grow  a  mustache. 


Method  is  the  hinge 
of  business,  and  there 
is  no  method  without 
order  and  punctuality. 
—  Hannah  More. 


The  greatest  hom- 
age we  can  pay  to 
truth  is  to  use  it. — 
Emerson. 


The  elect  are  those 
who  will,  and  the  non- 
elect  are  those  who 
won't. —  Beecher. 


53 


BOY      WANTED" 


Much  talent  is  often 
lost  for  want  of  a  little 
courage.  —  George 
Eliot. 


The  crowning  for- 
tune of  a  man  is  to  be 
born  with  a  bias  to 
some  pursuit,  which 
finds  him  in  employ- 
ment and  happiness. 
— Emerson. 


No  one  is  useless 
in  the  world  who 
lightens  the  burden  of 
it  for  any  one  else. — 
Charles  Dickens. 


Let  him  forget  he  was  ever  a  boy, 
Make  gold  his  god  and  its  jingle  his  joy. 
Keep  him  a-hustling  and  clear  out  of  breath, 
Until  he  wins — Nervous  Prostration  and  Death ! 

A  sorry  picture,  is  n't  it?  No  doubt  it 
sets  forth,  in  an  extreme  manner,  the  evils 
that  arise  from  crowding  a  child  into 
boyhood,  and  a  boy  into  manhood ;  still, 
no  one  who  observes  carefully  will  doubt 
that  such  wrongs  are  constantly  being 
committed  by  hundreds  of  ambitious 
parents  and  well-meaning  teachers. 

Yet,  I  think  you  have  little  to  fear  along 
the  lines  of  over-study.  You  must  train 
your  mind  to  grapple  with  tasks  while 
you  are  young,  for  if  you  do  not  begin 
now  you  may  not,  later  on,  be  able  to 
summon  that  concentration  of  thought 
that  is  necessary  for  winning  success 
along  any  line  of  endeavor. 

"Difficulties  are  the  best  stimulant. 
Trouble  is  a  tonic,"  says  one  of  our  wise 
essayists. 

"He  that  wrestles  with  us  strengthens 
our  nerves,  and  sharpens  our  skill,  our 
antagonist  is  our  helper,"  says  Edmund 
Burke.  "This  conflict  with  difficulty 
makes  us  acquainted  with  our  object,  and 

54 


OVER      AND      UNDERDOING 


/ 


compels  us  to  consider  it  in  all  its  rela- 
tions. It  will  not  suffer  us  to  be  superfi- 
cial."     - 

Life  is  a  grind ;  a  sorry  few 

Are  blunted  in  their  aim, 
And  some  are  sharpened,  keen  and  true, 

And  carve  their  way  to  fame. 

"Don't  take  too  much  advice — keep  at 
the  helm  and  steer  your  own  ship,"  says 
Noah  Porter.  All  of  which  is  very  good 
advice. 

The  boy  that  the  world  wants  most  is 
the  one  who  will  think  for  himself  at  the 
same  time  he  is  hearing  words  of  wisdom 
from  others.  A  boy  who  tried  to  follow 
all  the  advice  given  him  would  probably 
find  himself  unable  to  do  anything  at  all. 
Everyone  and  everything  seems  eager  to 
give  him  the  short  cut  to  fortune,  as  I 
have  endeavored  to  set  forth  in  a  bit  of 
nonsense  rhyme  which  I  call  the  secret  of 

HOW  TO   WIN   SUCCESS 

How  shall  I  win  success  in  life?"  the  young  man 
asked,  whereat: 
"Have  push,"  replied  the  Button;  "And  a  purr- 
puss,"  said  the  Cat. 
"Find  out  the  work  you  're  sooted  for,"  the  Chim- 
ney-Sweeper said, 

55 


The  fewer  the 
words  the  better  the 
prayer.  —  Luther. 


Next  to  excellence 
is  the  appreciation  of 
it. — Thackeray. 


The  great  are  only 
great  because  we  are 
on  our  knees ;  let  us 
rise  up. — Proudhon. 


"BOY      WANTED" 


Next  to  acquiring 
good  friends,  the  best 
acquisition  is  that  of 
good  books.  —  Col- 
ton. 


Never  suffer  youth 
to  be  an  excuse  for  in- 
adequacy, nor  age  and 
fame  to  be  an  excuse 
for  indolence. — Hay- 
don. 


The  greatest  man  is 
he  who  chooses  with 
the  most  invincible 
reason.  —  Seneca. 


Just  as  the  Match  and  Pin  remarked:  "And  never 
lose  your  head." 

"Aspire  to  grater,  finer  things,"  the  Nutmeg  cried. 

The  Hoe 
Said:  "Don't  fly  off  the  handle,"  and  the   Snail 

remarked:     "Go  slow." 
"Be  deaf  to  all  that's  told  you,"  said  the  Adder. 

"  'Mid  the  strife 
I  've  found  it  best,"  remarked  the  Heart,  "to  beat 

my  way  through  life." 

"Select  some  proper  task  and  then  stick  to  it,"  said 

the  Glue. 
"Look  pleasant,"  said  the  Camera;  "And  tied-y," 

said  the  Shoe. 
"Have  nerve!"   exclaimed   the  Tooth.     The   Hill 

remarked;  "Put  up  a  bluff!" 
"And  keep  cool,"  said  the  Ice,  whereat  the  young 

man  cried:  "Enough!" 

The  right-minded  boy  will  be  thought- 
ful but  not  so  much  absorbed  that  he  is 
unable  to  take  in  the  educative,  uplifting 
sunshine  all  about  him. 

Sharpen  your  wits  as  the  woodman 
must  sharpen  his  axe,  but  counsel  mod- 
eration. The  woodman  who  would  stay 
at  the  stone  and  grind  his  axe  all  away 
in  attempting  to  put  a  razor  edge  on  it 
would  be  deemed  very  foolish. 

Of  course  you  will  be,  you  must  be 
56 


OVER      AND      UNDERDOING 


thoughtful,  for  as  Ruskin  says:  "In  gen- 
eral I  have  no  patience  with  people  who 
talk  about  'the  thoughtlessness  of  youth' 
indulgently.  I  had  infinitely  rather  hear 
of  the  thoughtlessness  of  old  age,  and  the 
indulgence  of  that.  When  a  man  has 
done  his  work,  and  nothing  can  in  any 
way  be  materially  altered  in  his  fate,  let 
him  forget  his  toil,  and  jest  with  his  fate, 
if  he  will,  but  what  excuse  can  you  find 
for  wilfulness  of  thought  at  the  very  time 
when  every  crisis  of  fortune  hangs  on 
your  decision?  A  youth  thoughtless, 
when  all  the  happiness  of  his  home 
forever  depends  on  the  chances  or  the 
passions  of  an  hour!  A  youth  thought- 
less, when  the  career  of  all  his  days  de- 
pends on  the  opportunity  of  a  moment! 
A  youth  thoughtless,  when  his  every  ac- 
tion is  a  foundation-stone  of  future  con- 
duct, and  every  imagination  a  fountain 
of  life  or  death!  Be  thoughtless  in  any 
after  years,  rather  than  now,  though, 
indeed,  there  is  only  one  place  where  a 
man  may  be  nobly  thoughtless,  his  death- 
bed. Nothing  should  ever  be  left  to  be 
done  there." 

But  whatever  else  we  may  forget,  let 
us  remember  that  it  is  not  work,  but  over- 

57 


Self-conquest  is  the 
greatest  of  all  victories. 
—  Plato. 


Sloth,  like  rust, 
consumes  faster  than 
labor  wears,  while  the 
used  key  is  always 
bright. — Franklin. 


My  liveliest  delight 
was  in  having  con- 
quered myself.  —  Ros- 

SEAU. 


''BOY      WANTED" 


The  great  hope  of 
society  is  in  the  in- 
dividual character.  — 
Channing. 


No  thoroughly  oc- 
cupied man  was  ever 
yet  very  miserable. — 
Landor. 


The  habit  of  look- 
ing on  the  bright  side 
of  things  is  worth 
more  than  a  thousand 
pounds  a  year. — Sam- 
uel Johnson. 


work  that  kills.  Exercise  gained  through 
good,  wholesome  work  is  the  greatest  life- 
preservej  man  has  yet  discovered. 

"I  always  find  something  to  keep  me 
busy,"  said  Peter  Cooper  in  explaining 
how  he  had  preserved  so  well  his  strength 
of  mind  and  body,  "and  to  be  doing  some- 
thing is  the  best  medicine  one  can  take." 

The  ones  who  live  the  longest  and  best 
lives  are  the  cheerful  workers,  those  who 
find  a  good  excuse  for  liking  the  task  that 
comes  to  their  hands.  The  greatest  joy 
and  the  truest  success  do  not  come  to  the 
idler,  nor  the  one  who  overworks,  nor 
yet  to  the  one  who  does  things  by  fits  and 
starts,  but  to 

THE  STEADY  WORKER 

Whene'er  the  sun  was  shining  out,  Squire  Pettigrew 
would  say, 

"Now,  hurrah,  boys!  it's  just  the  time  to  be  a- 
making  hay. 

Because,  you  see,  the  sun  's  so  hot  't  will  cure  It 
right  away !" 
Then  all  the  mowers  kept  right  on  a-mowing. 

But  when  a  cloud  obscured  the  sun  Squire  Petti- 
grew would  shout, 

"Oh,  now  's  the  time  for  working  while  the  sun 
is  blotted  out, 


58 


OVER      AND      UNDERDOING 


A  cooling  cloud  like  that  will  make  our  muscles 
twice  as  stout !" 
And  that 's  the  way  he  kept  his  men  a-going. 

Hence,  little  did  it  matter  were  the  weather  wet 

or  dr}', — 
If  sunshine  filled  the  valleys  or  if  clouds  o'erspread 

the  sky, 
He  'd  always  think  of  something  which  he  deemed 

a  reason  why 
'Twas  just  the  time  for  him  to  keep  a-work- 
ing. 
But,  now  and  then,  or  so  it  seemed,  the  reasons  he 

would  seek 
For  working  on,  were  quite  far-fetched  and  faulty, 

so  to  speak. 
But,  oh,  they  were  not  half  so  "thin"  as  are  the 

many  weak 
Excuses  lazy  people  give  for  shirking. 


Nothing  of  worth 
or  weight  can  be 
achieved  with  a  half 
mind,  with  a  faint 
heart,  and  with  a  lame 
endeavor.  —  Barrow. 


The  strong  man  is 
the  man  with  the  gift 
of  method,  of  faith- 
fulness, of  valor.  — 
Carlyle. 


59 


CHAPTER  V 


THE    VALUE   OF    SPARE    MOMENTS 


4tTF  I  had  the  time!" 

Yes,  indeed!  Time  is  a  very  neces- 
sary factor  in  the  doing  of  things.  Time 
is  money.  Money  is  capital.  Capital  is 
power.  The  one  who  is  in  the  possession 
of  the  most  power  and  uses  it  to  the  best 
purpose  has  the  best  chance  for  winning 
success. 

Other  things  being  equal,  the  boy  who 
devotes  an  extra  half-hour  every  morn- 
ing or  evening  to  the  study  of  the  forth- 
coming day's  lessons  will  get  on  better 
than  his  classmates  who  do  not  thus  men- 
tally fortify  themselves. 

So  in  the  world's  big  life-school,  the 
man  who  finds  time  to  think  about  and 
to  study  the  tasks  and  duties  that  confront 
him  will  make  a  better  showing  than  the 
ones  who  thoughtlessly  and  in  an  unpre- 
pared manner  blunder  into  the  work  that 
is  before  them. 

"If  I  had  the  time!" 

6i 


Not  only  strike 
while  the  iron  is  hot, 
but  make  it  hot  by 
striking. — Cromwell. 


The  greatest  work 
has  always  gone  hand 
in  hand  with  the  most 
fervent  moral  purpose. 
—  Sidney  Lanier. 


No  true  and  per- 
manent fame  can  be 
founded  except  in  la- 
bors which  promote 
the  happiness  of  man- 
kind.—  Sumner. 


BOY      WANTED" 


The  greatest  men 
have  been  those  who 
have  cut  their  vv^ay  to 
success  through  diffi- 
culties .  —  Robertson. 


One  has  only  to 
know  the  twenty-six 
letters  of  the  alphabet 
in  order  to  learn  every- 
thing else  that  one 
wishes.  —  Duke  of 
Argyle. 


Strength  is  like 
gunpowder;  to  be  ef- 
fective it  needs  con- 
centration and  aim. — 
Mathews. 


That  is  the  sorry  cry  coming  from  the 
lips  of  thousands  of  unhappy  persons  of 
all  classes  and  ages.  But  the  saddest 
feature  of  it  all  is,  that  they  have  the  time 
and  do  not  know  it.  Or,  if  they  do  know 
it,  they  still  go  on  trying  to  deceive  them- 
selves and  others  by  repeating  the  same 
old,  threadbare  excuse  the  world  has 
always  offered  as  the  reason  why  it  has 
not  made  the  progress  it  should  have 
done. 

Now,  my  boy,  stop  a  moment  and  hon- 
estly think  it  over.  Have  n't  you  the 
time?  Isn't  it  the  disposition  to  make 
the  most  of  your  opportunities  that  is 
lacking?  How  much  time  did  you  waste 
yesterday?  How  much  time  are  you  go- 
ing to  waste  to-day? 

Let  us  not  lose  sight  of  the  sorry  fact 
that  in  wasting  an  hour  we  suffer  a 
double  loss  and  commit  a  double  wrong. 
We  not  only  lose  that  particular  hour, 
but  we  are  suffering  a  moral  weakness  to 
impair  the  strength  of  our  life  purpose, 
which  will  result  in  making  us  more 
likely  to  waste  other  golden  hours  yet  to 
come. 

And  what  is  a  wasted  hour?  This  is 
a  question  well  worth  considering.  Mo- 
62 


THE    VALUE    OF    SPARE     MOMENTS 


ments  spent  in  bright,  healthful,  joyous 
play  are  not  wasted.  "All  work  and  no 
play  makes  Jack  a  dull  boy."  It  should 
be  remembered,  also,  that  "All  play  and 
no  work  makes  Jack  a  dull  shirk." 

We  should  play  with  the  same  keen 
zest  with  which  we  should  work.  We 
must  not  work  all  the  while;  we  must 
not  play  all  the  while.  Good,  vigorous 
play  prepares  one  for  the  enjoyment  of 
work;  good,  vigorous  work  prepares  one 
for  the  enjoyment  of  play.  Those  who 
dawdle  in  a  listless,  half-and-half  way 
find  no  joy  in  working  or  playing. 

It  is  an  error  to  think  that  play  cannot 
be  made  to  serve  a  good  and  useful  pur- 
pose. Give  one  boy  a  knife  and  a  stick 
and  he  will  produce  only  a  lot  of  shav- 
ings as  the  result  of  his  whittling.  Give 
another  boy  a  knife  and  a  stick  and  he 
will  carve  out  some  object  or  invention 
of  use  and  beauty.  Give  one  man  leisure 
and  he  will  produce  nothing  or  worse 
than  nothing  to  show  for  his  wasted 
hours.  Give  another  man  leisure  and  he 
will  master  some  trade  or  profession  or 
theme  of  study  that  Vv'ill  make  him  of 
happy  worth  to  himself  and  the  world. 

It  is  not  the  lack  of  time,  but  the  lack 

63 


Success  treads  on 
the  heels  of  every  right 
effort.  —  Smiles. 


The  creation  of  a 
thousand  forests  is  in 
one  acorn.  —  Emer- 
son. 


That  is  the  best 
government  which 
teaches  us  to  govern 
ourselves. — Goethe. 


"BOY      WANTED" 


The  chains  of  habit 
are  too  weak  to  be 
felt  till  they  are  too 
strong  to  be  broken. 
—  Dr.  Johnson. 


Wise  evolution  is 
the  sure  safeguard 
against  a  revolution. 
—  Roosevelt. 


The  more  honesty 
a  man  has,  the  less  he 
affects  the  air  of  a 
saint. — Lavater. 


of  the  will  to  improve  our  spare  mo- 
ments, that  keeps  us  from  going  toward 
success.  We  mean  to  do  great  things 
some  time,  but  we  have  n't  the  will  to 
begin  to  build  just  now.  We  prefer  to 
belong  to  that  great  host  of  procrastina- 
tors  who  are  known  as 

THE  "GOING-TO-BEES" 

Suppose  that  some  fine  morn  in  May 
A  honey-bee  should  pause  and  say, 
"I  guess  I  will  not  work  to-day, 

But  next  week  or  next  summer, 
Or  some  time  in  the  by  and  by, 
I  '11  be  so  diligent  and  spry 
That  all  the  world  must  see  that  I 

Am  what  they  call  a  'hummer'!" 

Of  course  you  'd  wish  to  say  at  once, 

"O  bee!   don't  be  a  little  dunce, 

And  waste  your  golden  days  and  months 

In  lazily  reviewing 
The   things  you  're   'going'   to   do,   and   how 
Your  hive  with  honey  you  '11  endow, 
But  bear  in  mind,  O  bee,  that  NOW 

Is  just  the  time  for  'doing.'  " 

Suppose  a  youth  with  idle  hands 
Should  tell  you  all  the  splendid  plans 
Of  which  he  dreams,  the  while  the  sands 
Of  life  are  flowing,  flowing. 

64 


THE    VALUE     OF     SPARE     MO  M  E  N  T  S 


You'd  wish  to  say  to  him,  "O  boy! 
If  you  would  reap  your  share  of  joy, 
You  must  discerningly  employ 

Your  morning  hours  in  sowing." 

He  who  would  win  must  work!     The  prize 
Is  for  the  faithful  one  who  tries 
With  loyal  hand  and  heart;    whose  skies 

With  toil-crowned  hopes  are  sunny. 
And  they  who  hope  success  to  find 
This  homely  truth  must  bear  in  mind: 
"The  'going-to-bees'  are  not  the  kind 

That  fill  the  hive  with  honey." 

"Lost,  yesterday,  somewhere  between 
sunrise  and  sunset,  two  golden  hours, 
each  set  with  sixty  diamond  minutes. 
No  reward  is  offered,  for  they  are  gone 
forever."  How  clearly  these  words  of 
Horace  Mann  set  forth  the  experience  of 
thousands  of  persons,  day  by  day. 

Channing  tells  us,  "it  is  astonishing 
how  fruitful  of  improvement  a  short  sea- 
son becomes  when  eagerly  and  faithfully 
improved.  Volumes  have  not  only  been 
read,  but  written,  in  flying  journeys.  I 
have  known  a  man  of  vigorous  intellect, 
who  has  enjoyed  few  advantages  of  early 
education,  and  whose  mind  was  almost 
engrossed  by  the  details  of  an  extensive 
business,  but  who  composed  a  book  of 

6s 


God  sows  the  self- 
same truth  in  every 
heart. — Alicia  K. 
Van  Buren. 


Are  you  a  shep- 
herd, or  one  of  the 
herded  ?  —  Edmund 
Vance  Cooke. 


There  is  a  destiny 
that  makes  us  broth- 
ers. —  Edwin  Mark- 
ham. 


"BOY      WANTED" 


If  thou  art  a  man, 
admire  those  who  at- 
tempt great  enter- 
prises, even  though 
they  fail. — Seneca. 


No  one  is  free  who 
is  not  master  of  him- 
self.—  Shakespeare. 


A  thought  may 
touch  and  edge  our 
life  with  light.  — 
Trowbridge. 


much  original  thought,  in  steamboats 
and  on  horseback,  while  visiting  distant 
customers." 

The  thought  recorded  by  Jeremy  Tay- 
lor is  well  worth  remembering,  that  he 
who  is  choice  of  his  time  will  also 
be  choice  of  his  company,  and  choice  of 
his  actions;  lest  the  first  engage  him  in 
vanity  and  loss,  and  the  latter,  by  being 
criminal,  be  throwing  his  time  and  him- 
self away,  and  going  back  in  the  accounts 
of  eternity. 

The  plea,  ''If  I  had  the  time,"  is  well 
met  by  Matthew  Arnold,  who  says: 
"And  the  plea  that  this  or  that  man  has 
no  time  for  culture  will  vanish  as  soon  as 
we  desire  culture  so  much  that  we  begin 
to  examine  seriously  into  our  present  use 
of  time." 

"Oh,  what  wonders  have  been  per- 
formed in  'one  hour  a  day,'  "  says  Mar- 
den.  "One  hour  a  day  withdrawn  from 
frivolous  pursuits,  and  profitably  em- 
ployed, would  enable  any  man  of  ordi- 
nary capacity  to  master  a  complete 
science.  One  hour  a  day  would  make  an 
ignorant  man  a  well-informed  man  in 
ten  years.  One  hour  a  day  would  earn 
enough   to  pay  for  two   daily  and  tvv^o 

66 


THE    VALUE     OF     SPARE     MOMENTS 


weekly  papers,  two  leading  magazines, 
and  a  dozen  good  books.  In  an  hour 
a  day  a  boy  or  girl  could  read 
twenty  pages  thoughtfully  —  over  seven 
thousand  pages,  or  eighteen  large  vol- 
umes, in  a  year.  An  hour  a  day  might 
make  all  the  difference  between  bare 
existence  and  useful,  happy  living.  An 
hour  a  day  might  make  —  nay,  has  made 
—  an  unknown  man  a  famous  one,  a  use- 
less man  a  benefactor  to  his  race.  Con- 
sider, then,  the  mighty  possibilities  of 
two  —  four  —  yes,  six  hours  a  day  that 
are,  on  the  average,  thrown  away  by 
young  men  and  women  in  the  restless 
desire  for  fun  and  diversion." 

There  is  little  excuse  for  continued 
ignorance  these  times.  If  one's  time  is 
spent  at  a  point  remote  from  institutions 
of  learning,  or  his  days  are  so  occupied 
that  he  cannot  avail  himself  of  their  ad- 
vantages, he  can  be  a  pupil  in  an  ably 
conducted  correspondence  school,  that 
most  worthy  of  educational  means 
whereby  the  youth  in  the  isolated  rural 
home,  the  shut-ins  who  by  force  of  cir- 
cumstances are  prisoned  within  narrow 
v^alls,  the  night-watchman  whose  leisure 

comes  at  a  time  when  all  other  schools 

67 


Nothing  is  too  high 
for  a  man  to  reach, 
but  he  must  climb  with 
care  and  confidence. 
—  Hans  Andersen. 


Men  exist  for  the 
sake  of  one  another. 
Teach  them,  then,  or 
bear  with  them. — 
Marcus  Aurelius. 


Do  good  with  what 
thou  hast,  or  it  will 
do  thee  no  good. — 
William  Penn. 


"BOY      WANTED" 


One  great  cause  of 
failure  of  young  men 
in  business  is  the  lack 
of  concentration.  — 
Carnegie. 


Better  say  nothing 
than  not  to  the  pur- 
pose. —  William 
Penn. 


Diligence  is  the 
mother  of  good  luck. 
—  Franklin. 


are  closed,  the  seeker  after  knowledge  of 
any  kind,  at  any  time  and  at  any  place 
reached  by  the  great  governmental  pos- 
tal system,  can  be  brought  into  close 
touch  with  a  great  fountain  of  learning 
and  inspiration  of  which  one  may  absorb 
all  he  will.  From  this  time  forth  it  will 
ill  become  any  man  to  say  that  he  has  no 
chance  to  acquire  an  education,  or  that 
he  has  no  opportunity  to  improve  upon 
the  mental  equipment  he  already  pos- 
sesses. Instruction  is  within  the  reach  of 
all.  The  schoolmaster  is  abroad  as  he 
has  never  been  before.  Wherever  the 
postman  can  deliver  a  letter,  in  cottage 
or  mansion,  in  the  closely  packed  tene- 
ments of  the  city  or  in  the  remote  farm 
homes  reached  by  the  rural  free  delivery 
routes,  there  the  trained  college  pro- 
fessor makes  his  daily  or  weekly  visits, 
giving  his  "heart  to  heart"  talks  with 
each  of  his  thousands  of  pupils.  He  is 
with  the  boys  as  they  follow  the  plow, 
the  men  who  go  down  into  the  mines,  the 
girls  who  serve  at  the  loom  and  the  lathe, 
pointing  out  the  way  that  leads,  through 
self-help,  to  happiness. 

It  is  more  true  to-day  than  ever  before, 
that   "they   can   who   think   they   can." 

68 


THE    VALUE    OF     SPARE     MOMENTS 


The  means  are  more  nearly  at  hand  if 
one  is  determined  to  try  them.  Nothing 
but  the  spirit  of  procrastination  can  keep 
man  or  boy  from  setting  about  it  to  help 
himself  toward  better  things.  When  to 
begin  is  the  stumbling-block  in  the  way 
of  most  persons.  There  is  but  one  time 
when  we  can  do  anything.  That  time  is 
NOW!  To  delay  a  year,  a  week,  a  day 
may  prove  most  unfortunate.  Indeed, 
trouble  lies  in  the  way  of  those  who  are 
disposed  to  defer  the  doing  of  their  duty 
for  even 

"JUST    A    MINUTE" 

Whene'er  he  faced  a  task  and  knew 

He  should  begin  it, 
He  could  not  start  to  put  it  through 

For  "just  a  minute." 
And,  though  the  case  demanded  speed 
He  could  not  move  just  then;    but  he'd 
Be  ready  for  it,  yes,  indeed! 

In  "just  a  minute." 

His  purposes  were  out  of  rhyme 

By  "just  a  minute." 
The  whole  world  seemed  ahead  of  time 

By  "just  a  minute." 
He  could  not  learn  to  overhaul 
His  many  duties,  large  and  small, 
But  had  to  beg  them,  one  and  all, 

To  "wait  a  minute." 

69 


One  to-day  is  worth 
two  to-morrows. — 
Franklin. 


My  young  friend, 
do  you  know  that 
there  is  but  one  per- 
son who  can  recom- 
mend you?  Who  is 
that,  sir?  Yourself. 
—  Emerson. 


Think    before    you 
speak. — Washington. 


"BOY      WANTED" 


There  are  people 
who  do  not  know  how 
to  waste  their  time 
alone,  and  hence  be- 
come the  scourge  of 
busy    people. —  De 

BONALD. 


It  is  better  to  be 
alone  than  in  bad 
company. — Washing- 
ton. 


Gold  is  good  in  its 
place;  but  living, 
brave,  and  patriotic 
men  are  better  than 
gold. — Abraham  Lin- 
coln. 


In  manhood  he  was  still  delayed 

By  "just  a  minute." 
He  might  have  won,  had  Fortune  stayed 

For  "just  a  minute." 
But  at  the  end  of  life  he  railed 
At  "cruel  Fate,"  and  wept  and  wailed 
Because  he  knew  that  he  had  failed 

By  "just  a  minute." 

If  we  make  a  careful  study  of  the  lives 
of  the  world's  great  men  and  women, 
we  shall  find  that  their  distinction  was 
achieved  by  making  the  most  of  their 
spare  minutes.  The  ordinary,  common- 
place, and  inevitable  tasks  of  life  and  the 
efifort  required  to  make  a  living  are  re- 
markably similar  in  the  daily  experience 
of  most  men  and  women.  It  is  what  one 
does  with  the  remaining  leisure  moments 
that  determines  his  individual  taste  and 
trend,  and  eventually  gives  him  such  dis- 
tinction as  he  may  attain.  It  is  in  our 
leisure  hours  that  we  are  permitted  to 
follow  our  "hobbies,"  and  it  is  in  them 
that  our  truer  selves  find  expression. 
Many  of  the  greatest  men  in  the  w^orld's 
history  achieved  their  fame  outside  of 
their  regular  occupations  in  the  spare 
moments  of  time  which  most  people 
think   are   of  no  serious   use.     Marden 


70 


THE    VALUE     OF     SPARE     MOMENTS 


wisely  observes  that  "no  one  is  anxious 
about  a  young  man  while  he  is  busy  in 
useful  work.  But  where  does  he  eat  his 
lunch  at  noon?  Where  does  he  go  when 
he  leaves  his  boarding-house  at  night? 
What  does  he  do  after  supper?  Where 
does  he  spend  his  Sundays  and  holidays? 
The  great  majority  of  youth  who  go  to 
the  bad  are  ruined  after  supper.  Most 
of  them  who  climb  upward  to  honor  and 
fame  devote  their  evenings  to  study  or 
work  or  the  society  of  the  wise  and  good. 
For  the  right  use  of  these  leisure  hours, 
what  we  have  called  the  waste  of  life, 
the  odd  moments  usually  thrown  away, 
the  author  would  plead  with  every 
youth." 

Watt  learned  chemistry  and  mathe- 
matics while  working  at  his  trade  of  a 
mathematical-instrument  maker.  Dar- 
win composed  most  of  his  works  by 
writing  his  thoughts  on  scraps  of  paper 
wherever  he  chanced  to  be.  Henry 
Kirke  White  learned  Greek  while  walk- 
ing to  and  from  a  lawyer's  office.  Elihu 
Burritt  acquired  a  mastery  of  eighteen 
languages  and  twenty-two  dialects  by  im- 
proving the  fragments  of  time  which  he 
could    steal    from    his   occuD^tion    as    a 


Politeness  and  ci- 
vility are  the  best  cap- 
ital ever  invested  in 
business. — P.  T.  Bar- 

NUM. 


Let  none  falter  who 
thinks  he  is  right. — 
Abraham  Lincoln. 


The  truest  test  of 
civilization  is  not  the 
census,  not  the  size 
of  cities,  not  the  crops; 
no,  but  the  kind  of 
man  the  country  turns 
out. — Emerson. 


71 


"BOY      WANTED" 


Inherited  wealth  is 
an  unmitigated  curse 
when  divorced  from 
culture.  —  Charles 
William  Eliot. 


The  wisdom  of  na- 
tions lies  in  their  prov- 
erbs, which  are  brief 
and  pithy.  Collect 
and  learn  them  ;  they 
are  notable  measures 
and  directions  for  hu- 
man life;  you  have 
much  in  little;  they 
save  time  in  speaking, 
and  upon  occasion 
may  be  the  fullest  and 
safest  answers. — Wil- 
liam Penn. 


Experience  keeps  a 
dear  school,  but  fools 
will  learn  in  no  other. 
—  Franklin. 


blacksmith.  Hundreds  of  similar  ex- 
amples could  be  given  in  which  men 
have  achieved  distinction  by  improving 
the  odd  moments  which  others  waste. 

And  you,  oh,  my  boy!  when  you  have 
reached  the  age  where  the  world  has  a 
right  to  expect  that  you  will  begin  to 
prepare  yourself  for  the  work  that  is  be- 
fore you,  lay  hold,  I  beseech  you,  of 
these  "spare  moments,"  and  weld  them 
into  a  beautiful  purpose  that  shall  make 
your  life  a  joy  to  yourself  and  to  all  who 
shall  come  within  the  zone  of  your  influ- 
ence. Do  not  fail  to  improve  the  mo- 
ments because  they  are  so  few.  The 
fewer  there  are  the  more  the  need  of  im- 
proving them.  Do  not  procrastinate,  do 
not  put  off,  do  not  defer  the  work  of  self- 
improvement  till  a  more  favorable  time. 
Know  that  with  the  coming  of  every 
opportunity  you  have  a  duty  to  perform. 
That  you  must  help  yourself  whenever 
you  can,  and  that  you  must 

DO  IT  NOW! 

If  you  have  a  task  worth  doing, 

Do  It  now! 
In  delay  there's  danger  brewing, 

Do  it  now! 


72 


THE    VALUE    OF    SPARE 

MOMENTS 

Don't  you  be  a  "  by-and-byer " 

And  a  sluggish  patience-trier; 

Don't  flinch,  floun- 

If there  's  aught  you  would  acquire, 

der,  fall  over,  nor  fid- 

Do it  now! 

dle,  but  grapple  like  a 

man.      A     man    who 

If  you  'd  earn  a  prize  worth  owning, 

wills   it   can   go   any- 

Do it  now! 

where,   and   do  what 

Drop  all  waiting  and  postponing. 

he   determines  to  do. 

Do  it  now! 

— John  Todd. 

Say,  "I  will!"  and   then  stick  to  it. 

Choose  your  purpose  and  pursue  it. 

There  's  but  one  right  way  to  do  it, 

Do  it  now! 

All  we  have  is  just  this  minute, 

Do  it  now! 

Find  j'our  duty  and  begin  ft. 

Do  it  now! 

Do  all  the  good  you 

Surely   you  're   not   always    going 

can,  and  make  as  little 

To  be  "a  going-to-be";  and  knowing 

fuss  as  possible  about 

You  must  some  time  make  a  showing 

it.  —  Dickens. 

Do  it  now! 

73 


GARFIELD    AS    A    CANAL   BOY 


CHAPTER  VI 


CHEERFULNESS 


T  ET  US  suppose  that  you  must  go  into 
^^  partnership  for  life  with  some  other 
boy,  as  the  world  is  about  to  go  into  part- 
nership with  you,  would  you  not  wish 
him  to  have,  first  of  all,  a  cheerful  dispo- 
sition? 

Has  it  ever  occurred  to  you  that  the 
world  entertains  the  same  thought  regard- 
ing yourself? 

It  is  easy  to  understand  why  a  partner- 
ship, the  members  of  which  pleasantly 
pull  together,  is  more  likely  to  thrive  than 
is  one  wherein  they  are  always  complain- 
ing of  each  other  and  sadly  prophesying 
failure. 

The  world,  as  your  partner,  will  be 
toward  you  what  you  are  toward  it. 

Smile,  once  in  a  while, 

'Twill  make  your  heart  seem  lighter; 
Smile,  once  in  a  while, 

'T  will  make  your  pathway  brighter ; 

75 


Joy  is  not  in  things, 
it  is  in  us. — Wagner. 


Money  is  good  for 
nothing  unless  you 
know  the  value  of  it 
by  experience.  —  P. 
T.  Barnvm. 


The  day  is  immeas- 
urably long  to  him 
who  knows  not  how 
to  value  and  use  it. — 
Goethe. 


''BOY      WANTED" 


It  is  a  maxim  with 
me  not  to  ask  what, 
under  similar  circum- 
stances, I  would  not 
grant.  — Washington. 


Next  to  virtues,  the 
fun  in  this  world  is 
what  we  can  least 
spare.  —  Strickland. 


I  resolved  that,  like 
the  sun,  so  long  as 
my  day  lasted,  I 
would  look  on  the 
bright  side  of  every- 
thing. —  Thomas 
Hood. 


Life  's  a  mirror ;    if  we  smile, 

Smiles  come  back  to  greet  us ; 
If  we  're  frowning  all  the  while, 

Frowns  forever  meet  us. 

"As  you  cannot  have  a  sweet  and 
wholesome  abode  unless  you  admit  the 
air  and  sunshine  freely  into  your  rooms," 
says  James  Allen,  "so  a  strong  body  and 
a  bright,  happy,  or  serene  countenance 
can  result  only  from  the  free  admittance 
into  the  mind  of  thoughts  of  joy  and 
good  will  and  serenity.  There  is  no  phy- 
sician like  cheerful  thought  for  dissipat- 
ing the  ills  of  the  body;  there  is  no  com- 
forter to  compare  with  good  will  for  dis- 
persing the  shadows  of  grief  and  sorrow. 
To  live  continually  in  thoughts  of  ill 
will,  cynicism,  suspicion  and  envy,  is  to 
be  confined  in  a  self-made  prison-hole. 
But  to  think  well  of  all,  to  be  cheerful 
with  all,  to  patiently  learn  to  find  the 
good  in  all — such  unselfish  thoughts  are 
the  very  portals  of  heaven ;  and  to  dwell 
day  by  day  in  thoughts  of  peace  toward 
every  creature  will  bring  abounding 
peace  to  the  possessor  of  such  thoughts." 

Says  Robert  Louis  Stevenson:  "A 
happy  man  or  w^oman  is  a  better  thing  to 
find  than  a  five-pound  note.  He  or  she 
76 


CHEERFULNESS 


is  radiating  a  focus  of  good  will ;  and  his 
or  her  entrance  into  a  room  is  as  though 
another  candle  had  been  lighted." 

"It  is  a  fair,  even-handed,  noble  ad- 
justment of  things,  that  while  there  is 
infection  in  disease  and  sorrow,  there  is 
nothing  in  the  world  so  irresistibly  con- 
tagious as  laughter  and  good  humor," 
says  Dickens. 

Give  but  a  smile  to  sorry  men, 
They  '11  give  it,  bettered,  back  again. 

Bovee  very  truly  say^,  "The  cheerful 
live  longest  in  years,  and  afterwards  in 
our  regards." 

"I  have  gout,  asthma,  and  seven  other 
maladies,"  said  Sydney  Smith,  "but  am 
otherwise  very  happy."  How  often  those 
with  whom  we  meet  are  sorely  afflicted 
and  yet  their  cheerful  faces  do  not  betray 
their  troubles.  They  are  too  considerate 
of  our  happiness  to  sadden  our  minds 
with  their  woes.  Those  whom  we  deem 
fretful  without  sufficient  excuse,  if  indeed 
any  excuse  justifies  the  habit  of  fretting, 
may  be  much  more  sorely  afflicted  than 
we  think  they  are.  There  is  a  world  of 
sympathetic  truth  in  that  old  saying 


Ideas  go  booming 
through  the  world 
louder  than  cannon. 
Thoughts  are  mightier 
than  armies.  Princi- 
ples have  achieved 
more  victories  than 
horsemen  or  chariots. 
—  Paxton. 


Method  is  like 
packing  things  in  a 
box;  a  good  packer 
will  get  in  half  as 
much  again  as  a  bad 
one.  —  Cecil. 


If  it  required  no 
brains,  no  nerve,  no 
energy,  no  work, 
there  would  be  no 
glory  in  achievement. 
—  Bates. 


V 


"BOY      WANTED 


It  is  not  what  one 
can  get  out  of  work, 
but  what  he  may  put 
in,  that  is  the  test  of 
success.  —  Lilian 
Whiting. 


There  is  only  one 
real  failure  in  life  pos- 
sible ;  and  that  is,  not 
to  be  true  to  the  best 
one  knows.  —  Canon 
Farrar. 


Confidence  imparts 
a  wonderful  inspira- 
tion to  its  possessor. 
—  Milton. 


"TO  KNOW  ALL  IS  TO  FORGIVE  ALL'* 

If  I  knew  you  and  you  knew  me — 
If  hoth  of  us  could  clearly  see, 
And  with  an  inner  sight  divine 
The  meaning  of  your  heart  and  mine, 
I  'm  sure  that  we  would  differ  less 
And  clasp  our  hands  in  friendliness; 
Our  thoughts  would  pleasantly  agree 
If  I  knew  you  and  you  knew  me. 

If  I  knew  you  and  you  knew  me, 

As  each  one  knows  his  own  self,  we 

Could  look  each  other  in  the  face 

And  see  therein  a  truer  grace. 

Life  has  so  many  hidden  woes, 

So  many  thorns  for  every  rose ; 

The  "why"  of  things  our  hearts  would  sec, 

If  I  knew  you  and  you  knew  me. 

"If  a  word  will  render  a  man  happy," 
said  one  of  the  French  philosophers,  "he 
must  be  a  wretch,  indeed,  who  will  not 
give  it.  It  is  like  lighting  another  man's 
candle  with  your  own,  which  loses  none 
of  its  brilliancy  by  what  the  other  gains." 
Another  wise  writer  says:  "Mirth  is 
God's  medicine;  everybody  ought  to 
bathe  in  it.  Grim  care,  moroseness, 
anxiety — all  the  rust  of  life,  ought  to  be 
scoured  off  by  the  oil  of  mirth." 

Orison  Swett  Marden,  than  whom  no 
man's  golden  words  have  done  more  to 
78 


CHEERFULNESS 


make  the  world  brighter  and  better,  says: 
"We  should  fight  against  every  influence 
which  tends  to  depress  the  mind,  as  we 
would  against  a  temptation  to  crime.  A 
depressed  mind  prevents  the  free  action 
of  the  diaphragm  and  the  expansion  of 
the  chest.  It  stops  the  secretions  of  the 
body,  interferes  with  the  circulation  of 
the  blood  in  the  brain,  and  deranges  the 
entire  functions  of  the  body." 

"Do  not  anticipate  trouble,"  says 
Franklin,  "or  worry  about  what  may 
never  happen.     Keep  in  the  sunlight." 

One  of  our  present  day  apostles  of  the 
gospel  of  cheerfulness  tells  us  that  worry 
is  a  disease.  "Some  people  ought  to  be 
incarcerated  for  disturbing  the  family 
peace,  and  for  troubling  the  public  wel- 
fare, on  the  charge  of  intolerable  fretful- 
ness  and  touchiness." 

The  boy  whom  the  world  wants  will 
be  wise,  indeed,  if  he  includes  in  his 
preparations  for  meeting  the  years  that 
are  before  him — 

A   CURE    FOR   TROUBLE 

Trouble  is  looking  for  some  one  to  trouble  ! 

Who  will  partake  of  his  worrisome  wares? 
Where  shall  he  tarry  and  whom  shall  he  harry 

At  morning  and  night  with  his  burden  of  cares  ? 

79 


The  most  important 
attribute  of  man  as  a 
moral  being  is  the  fac- 
ulty of  self-control. — 
Herbert  Spencer. 


Self-control,  I  say, 
is  the  root  virtue  of  all 
virtues.  It  is  at  the 
very  center  of  charac- 
ter.— King. 


In  the  long  run  a 
man  becomes  what  he 
purposes,  and  gains 
for  himself  what  he 
really  desires.  — 
Mabie. 


"BOY      WANTED" 


I  owe  all  my  suc- 
cess in  life  to  having 
been  always  a  quarter 
of  an  hour  before- 
hand.—  Lord  Nel- 
son. 


The  period  of 
greenness  is  the  period 
of  growth.  When  we 
cease  to  be  green  and 
are  entirely  ripe  we 
are  ready  for  decay. 
—  Bryan. 


Prepare  yourself  for 
the  world  as  the  ath- 
letes used  to  do  for 
their  exercises;  oil 
your  mind  and  your 
manners  to  give  them 
the  necessary  supple- 
ness and  flexibility; 
strength  alone  will  not 
do. —  Chesterfield. 


They  who  have  hands  that  are  idle  and  empty, 
They  without  purpose  to  build  and  to  bless ; 

They  ^yho  invite  him  with  scowls  that  delight  him 
Are  they  who  shall  dwell  in  the  House  of  Distress. 

Trouble  is  looking  for  some  one  to  trouble  ! 

I  '11  tell  you  how  all  his  plans  to  eclipse: 
When  he  draws  near  you  be  sure  he  shall  hear  you 

A-working  away  with  a  song  on  your  lips. 
Look  at  him  squarely  and  laugh  at  his  coming; 

Say  you  are  busy  and  bid  him  depart; 
He  will  not  tease  you  to  stay  if  he  sees  you 

Have  tasks  in  your  hands  and  a  hope  in  your  heart. 

Trouble  is  looking  for  some  one  to  trouble  ! 

I  shall  not  listen  to  aught  he  shall  say; 
Out  of  life's  duty  shall  blossom  in  beauty 

A  grace  and  a  glory  to  gladden  the  way. 
I  shall  have  faith  in  the  gifts  of  the  Giver ; 

I  shall  be  true  to  my  purpose  and  plan ; 
Good  cheer  abounding  and  love  all-surrounding, 

I  shall  keep  building  the  best  that  I  can. 

''Give,  O  give  us,  the  man  who  sings 

at  his  work!"  says  Thomas  Carlyle.    "Be 

his  occupation  what  it  may,  he  is  equal  to 

any  of  those  who  follow  the  same  pursuit 

in   silent  sullenness.    He  will   do  more 

in  the  same  time — he  will  do  it  better — 

he  will  persevere  longer.    One  is  scarcely 

sensible  to  fatigue  while  he  marches  to 

music.    The  very  stars  are  said  to  make 

harmony  as  they  revolve  in  their  spheres. 
80 


CHEERFULNESS 


Wondrous  is  the  strength  of  cheerfulness, 
altogether  past  calculation  its  powers  of 
endurance.  Efforts  to  be  permanently 
useful  must  be  uniformly  joyous — a  spirit 
all  sunshine — grateful  for  very  gladness, 
beautiful  because  bright." 

Have  you  a  cheerful  member  in  your 
circle  of  friends,  a  cheerful  neighbor  in 
the  vicinity  of  your  home?  Cherish  him 
as  a  pearl  of  great  price.  He  is  of  real, 
practical  value  to  all  with  whom  he  comes 
in  contact.  His  presence  in  a  neighbor- 
hood ought  to  make  real  estate  sell  for 
a  bit  more  a  square  foot,  and  life  more 
prized  by  all  who  partake  of  his  good 
cheer.  He  greets  the  world  with  a  smile 
and  a  laugh — a  real  laugh,  born  of 
thought  and  feeling — not  a  superficial 
veneer  of  humor  the  falsity  of  which  is 
detected  by  all  who  hear  it.  "How  much 
lies  in  laughter,"  says  Carlyle,  "It  is  the 
cipher-key  wherewith  we  decipher  the 
whole  man.  Some  men  wear  an  ever- 
lasting simper;  in  the  smile  of  another 
lies  the  cold  glitter,  as  of  ice;  the  fewest 
are  able  to  laugh  what  can  be  called 
laughing,  but  only  sniff  and  titter  and 
snicker  from  the  throat  outward,  or  at 
least  produce  some  whiffing,  husky  cach- 

8i 


Poetry  is  simply  tne 
most  beautiful,  im- 
pressive, and  widely 
effective  mode  of  say- 
ing things,  and  hence 
its  importance.  — 
Matthew  Arnold. 


In  all  things,  to 
serve  from  the  lowest 
station  upwards  is 
necessary . — Goethe. 


To  do  nothing  by 
halves  is  the  way  of 
noble  minds.  — Wie- 

LAND. 


"BOY      WANTED" 


Whatever  your  oc- 
cupation may  be,  and 
however  crowded 
your  hours  with  af- 
fairs, do  not  fail  to 
secure  at  least  a  few 
minutes  every  day  for 
refreshment  of  your 
inner  life  with  a  bit 
of  poetry. —  Charles 
Eliot  Norton. 


Nothing  of  us  be- 
longs so  wholly  to 
other  people  as  our 
looks. — Glover. 


Our  greatest  glory 
consists,  not  in  never 
falling,  but  in  rising 
every  time  we  fall.  — 
Goldsmith. 


ination,  as  if  they  were  laughing  through 
wool.    Of  none  such  comes  good." 

Do'  you  like  the  boy  who  in  a  game  of 
ball  is  whining  all  the  time  because  he 
cannot  be  constantly  at  the  bat? 

Is  n't  the  real  manly  boy  the  one  who 
can  lose  cheerfully  when  he  has  played 
the  game  the  best  he  possibly  could  and 
has  been  honestly  defeated? 

Nothing  is  ever  well  done  that  is  not 
done  cheerfully.  The  one  with  a  growl 
spoils  whatever  joy  good  fortune  may 
seek  to  bring  him.  The  man  with  whom 
the  whole  world  loves  to  be  in  partner- 
ship is 

THE   ONE  WITH   A   SONG 

The  cloud-maker  says  it  is  going  to  storm, 

And  we  *re  sure  to  have  awful  weather, — 
Just  terribly  wet  or  cold  or  warm, 

Or  maybe  all  three  together! 
But  while  his  spirit  is  overcast 

With  the  gloom  of  his  dull  repining, 
The  one  with  a  song  comes  smiling  past, 

And,  lo!    the  sun  is  shining. 

The  cloud-maker  tells  us  the  world  is  wrong, 

And  is  bound  in  an  evil  fetter, 
But  the  blue-sky  man  comes  bringing  a  song 
Of  hope  that  shall  make  it  better. 


CHEERFULNESS 


And  the  toilers,  hearing  his  voice,  behold 

The  sign  of  a  glad  to-morrow, 
Whose  hands  are  heaped  with  the  purest  gold, 

Of  which  each  heart  may  borrow. 

The  one  who  thinks  the  world  is  full 
of  good  people  and  kindly  blessings  is 
much  richer  than  the  one  who  thinks  to 
the  contrary.  Some  men  live  in  a  world 
peopled  with  princes  of  the  royal  blood; 
some  in  a  world  of  want  and  wrong-doers. 
Those  whom  we  distrust  are  likely  to  dis- 
trust us.  To  believe  a  man  is  a  man  helps 
to  make  him  so  at  heart.  To  think  him  a 
rascal  is  a  start  for  him  in  the  wrong 
direction.  The  world  smiles  at  us  if  we 
smile  at  it;  when  we  frown  it  frowns.  It 
is  the  armor  of  war  and  not  that  of  love 
that  invites  trouble.  He  who  carries  a 
sword  is  the  most  likely  to  find  a  cause 
for  using  it.  The  man  who  remembers 
it  was  a  beautiful  day  yesterday  is  a  great 
deal  happier  than  he  who  is  sure  it  is 
going  to  storm  to-morrow. 

Though  life  is  made  up  of  mere  bubbles, 

'T  is  better  than  many  aver. 
For  while  we  've  a  whole  lot  of  troubles, 

The  most  of  them  never  occur. 

In  the  thousand  and  one  little  every- 

83 


A  noble  manhood, 
nobly  consecrated  to 
man,  never  dies.  — 
William   McKinley. 


It  is  easy  finding 
reasons  why  other 
folks  should  be  pa- 
tient. —  George  El- 


Sympathy  is  two 
hearts  tugging  at  one 
load.  —  Parkhurst. 


''BOY      WANTED" 


What  folly  to  tear 
one's  hair  in  sorrow, 
just  as  if  grief  could 
be  assuaged  by  bald- 
ness.—  Cicero. 


Be  at  war  with 
your  vices,  at  peace 
with  your  neighbors, 
and  let  every  new 
year  find  you  a  better 
man. —  Franklin. 


Give    us    to    go 

blithely  about  our 
business  all  this  day, 
bring  us  to  our  resting 
beds  weary  and  con- 
tent and  undishon- 
cred,  and  grant  us  in 
the  end  the  gift  of 
sleep. — Stevenson. 


day  affairs  of  life  the  man  who  is  disposed 
to  take  things  by  the  smooth  handles  saves 
himseW  and  those  about  him  an  endless 
amount  of  worry.  The  pessimist  is  an 
additional  sorrow  in  a  world  that  holds 
for  all  of  us  some  glints  of  sunshine  and 
some  shreds  of  song.  It  was  of  one  such 
sorry  soul  that  I  penned  the  lines — 

He  growled  at  morning,  noon  and  night, 

And  trouble  sought  to  borrow; 
On  days  when  all  the  skies  were  bright 

He  knew  't  would  storm  to-morrow. 
A  thought  of  joy  he  could  not  stand 

And  struggled  to  resistit; 
Though  sunshine  dappled  all  the  land 

This  sorry  pessimist  it. 

Occasionally  we  meet  a  person  well 
along  in  years  who  has  not  yet  acquired 
sufficient  wisdom  to  understand  that  with- 
out some  of  the  elements  of  a  storm  in  the 
sky  we  could  never  look  upon  that  most 
marvelously  beautiful  spectacle — a  rain- 
bow. 

Without  hunger  and  thirst,  food  and 
drink  would  be  superfluous;  without 
cold,  warmth  would  lose  its  grateful 
charm;  without  weariness,  rest  were  of 
no  avail;  without  grief,  gladness  would 
84 


CHEERFULNESS 


lose  its  delight.  The  thoughtful,  thank- 
ful soul  will  keep  the  lips  from  complain- 
ing and  the  hands  from  wrong-doing  by 
always  supplying  them  with 

A    SMILE   AND    A   TASK 

Keep  a  smile  on  your  lips ;  it  is  better 

To  joyfully,  hopefully  try 
For  the  end  you  would  gain,  than  to  fetter 

Your  life  with  a  moan  and  a  sigh. 
There  are  clouds  in  the  firmament  ever 

The  beauty  of  heaven  to  mar, 
Yet  night  so  profound  there  is  never 

But  somewhere  is  shining  a  star. 

Keep  a  task  in  your  hands ;  you  must  labor ; 

By  deeds  is  true  happiness  won ; 
For  stranger  and  friend  and  for  neighbor, 

Rejoice  there  is  much  to  be  done. 
Endeavor  by  crowning  life's  duty 

With  joy-giving  song  and  with  smile, 
To  make  the  world  fuller  of  beauty 

Because  you  are  in  it  a  while. 

"Of  all  virtues  cheerfulness  is  the  most 
profitable.  While  other  virtues  defer 
the  day  of  recompense,  cheerfulness  pays 
down.  It  is  a  cosmetic  which  makes 
homeliness  graceful  and  winning.  It 
promotes  health  and  gives  clearness  and 
vigor  to  the  mind ;  it  is  the  bright  weather 

85 


Teach  your  child  to 
hold  his  tongue,  he  '11 
learn  fast  enough  to 
speak. —  Franklin. 


There  is  no  use 
arguing  with  the  in- 
evitable ;  the  only  ar- 
gument with  the  east 
wind  is  to  put  on  your 
overcoat. — Lowell. 


A  young  man  can- 
not honestly  make  a 
success  in  any  busi- 
ness unless  he  loves 
his    work.  —  Edward 

BOK. 


"BOY      WANTED" 


There  is  a  great 
deal  more  to  be  got 
out  of  things  than  is 
generally  got  out  of 
them,  whether  the 
thing  be  a  chapter  of 
the  Bible  or  a  yellow 
turnip.  —  MacDon- 

ALD. 


The  boy  who  does 
not  go  to  school  does 
not  know  what  Satur- 
day is.  —  Babcock. 


A  faithful  friend  is 
a  strong  defence,  and 
he  that  hath  found 
him  hath  found  a 
treasure.  — Ecclesias- 

TICUS. 


of  the  heart  in  contrast  with  the  clouds 
and  gloom  of  melancholy."  These  words 
from  the  writings  of  one  of  our  sunniest 
philosophers  are  worth  much  gold  to 
one  who  will  ever  keep  them  in  mind. 

Sydney  Smith  says  that  "all  mankind 
are  happier  for  having  been  happy;  so 
that,  if  you  make  them  happy  now,  you 
make  them  happy  twenty  years  hence  by 
the  memory  of  it."  This  being  true  we 
should  do  all  in  our  power  to  turn  men 
from  gloom  to  gladness;  from  the  shad- 
ows to  sunshine.  With  this  purpose  in 
mind  I  have  written 

AN  OPEN  LETTER  TO  THE  PESSIMIST 

Brother  —  you  with  growl  and  frown  — 
Why  don't  you  move  from  Grumbletown, 
Where  everything  is  tumbled  down 

And  skies  are  dark  and  dreary  ? 
Move  over  into  Gladville  where 
Your  face  will  don  a  happy  air, 
And  lay  aside  your  cross  of  care 

For  smiles  all  bright  and  cheery. 

In  Grumbletown  there  's  not  a  joy 
But  has  a  shadow  of  alloy 
That  must  its  happiness  destroy 
And  make  you  to  regret  it. 
In  Gladville  we  have  not  a  care 
But,  somehow,  looks  inviting  there, 
86 


CHEERFULN 

E 

S  S 

And  has  about  it  something  fair 

That  makes  us  glad  to  get  it. 

The     three     things 
most   difficult   are,   to 

'T  is  strange  how  different   these   towns 

keep  a  secret,  to  for- 

Of ours  are!    Good  cheer  abounds 

get  an  injury,  and  to 

In  one,  and  gruesome  growls  and  frowns 

make   a   good  use   of 

Are  alwaj's  in  the  other. 

leisure.  —  Chilo. 

If  you  your  skies  of  ashen  gray 

Would  change  for  sunny  skies  of  May, 

From  Grumbletown,  oh,  haste  away; 

Move  into  Gladville,  brother. 

87 


BIRTHPLACE    OF   BENJAMIN    FRANKLIN       BOSTON 


CHAPTER   VII 


DREAMING    AND    DOING 


**T_riTCH  your  wagon  to  a  star!" 

Such  is  the  advice  Emerson  gave 
to  ambitious  youth.  He  meant  well,  no 
doubt,  and  indeed,  his  words  are  all  right 
if  taken  with  a  pinch  of  salt.  A  boy 
should  dream  great  dreams,  of  course, 
but  he  ought  to  set  his  dream-gauge  so  as 
to  have  it  indicate  a  line  of  endeavor  it 
will  be  possible  for  him  to  follow. 

"Hitch  your  wagon  to  a  star," 
Sounds  eloquent,  of  course. 

But  it  might  prove  more  prudent,  far, 

To  hitch  it  to  a  motor-car, 
Or  a  steady-going  horse. 

The  type  of  boy  the  world  counts  on  to 
do  it  the  most  lasting  good  is  the  youth 
that  does  not  permit  the  wings  of  fancy 
to  carry  him  so  far  into  the  blue  empyrean 
that  he  cannot  touch  the  solid  earth  with 
at  least  the  tiptoes  of  reason. 

As  Wingate  truly  says:  "There  is  no 
use  in  filling  young  people's  minds  with 


The  talent  that  is 
buried  is  not  owned. 
The  napkin  and  the 
hole  in  the  ground 
are  far  more  truly  the 
man's  property. — 
Babcock. 


That  which  some 
call  idleness  I  call  the 
sweetest  part  of  my 
life,  and  that  is  my 
thinking.  —  Felsham. 


We  must  learn  to 
bear  and  to  work  be- 
fore we  can  spare 
strength  to  dream.  — 
Phelps. 


"BOY      WANTED'' 


Training  is  every- 
thing. The  peach 
was  once  a  bitter 
almond;  cauliflower  is 
nothing  but  cabbage 
with  a  college  educa- 
tion.— Mark  Twain. 


Success  comes  only 
to  those  who  lead  the 
life  of  endeavor.  — 
Roosevelt. 


The  most  certain 
sign  of  wisdom  is  a 
continued  cheerfulness. 
—  Montaigne. 


vain  hopes;    not  every  one  can  make  a 
fortune  or  a  national  reputation,  but  he 
who  possesses  health,  ordinary  ability, 
honesty  and  industry  can  at  least  earn  a 
livelihood." 

If  you  are  striving  to  be  a  level-headed 
boy  you  will  understand  that  if  you  keep 
your  eyes  fastened  on  the  stars  all  the 
while  you  are  likely  to  overlook  a  thou- 
sand opportunities  lying  all  about  your 
pathway. 

Let 's  not  despise  just  common  things, 
For  here  's  a  truth  there  is  no  dodging, 

The  bird  that  soars  on  proudest  wings 

Comes  down  to  earth  for  board  and  lodging. 

Some  of  the  poets  and  others  advise 
you  to  aim  at  the  sky  or  the  sun  or  some- 
thing of  that  sort,  for  by  so  doing  you  will 
shoot  higher  than  you  would  if  you  aimed 
at  the  ground. 

I  would  advise  you  to  aim  directly  at" 
the  target  you  wish  to  hit.     Don't  shoot 
over  it  or  under  it;  shoot  at  it. 

Dreaming  great  things  is  good  but 
doing  simple  things  may  be  better.  There 
ought  to  be,  and  there  will  be  more 
dreams  than  deeds,  just  as  there  are  more 
blossoms  on  the  tree  than  can  mature  and 
ripen  into  perfect  fruit. 
90 


DREAMING      AND       DOING 


We  shall  always  have  to  divide  our 
attention  between  the  things  we  can  do 
and  the  things  we  should  like  to  do. 
Dreaming  is  an  interesting  pastime  but 
we  should  not  devote  too  many  precious 
moments  to 

THE    PLEASURES    OF    "IFFING" 

"If"  this  or  that  were  thus  and  so, 

Oh,  would  n't  it  be  clever ! 
But  "ifs,"  alas !  won't  make  it  so 

Though  we  should  "if"  forever. 
Yet,  while  "ifs"  cannot  help  a  mite, 

We  'd  all  be  less  contented 
And  life  would  hold  far  less  delight 

"If"  "iffing"  were  prevented. 

When  the  time  arrives  for  a  boy  to 
cease  dreaming  and  to  begin  doing  he 
should  seize  upon  the  highest  duty  that 
comes  to  his  hands  and  waste  not  a  mo- 
ment in  dilatory  uncertainties.  "Thrift 
of  time,"  says  Gladstone,  "will  repay  you 
in  after-life  with  a  thousandfold  of  profit 
beyond  your  most  sanguine  dreams." 

Hopes  are  good,  but  patiently  worked- 
out  realities  are  better.  Hope  is  for 
to-morrow.  Work  is  for  to-day.  The 
hope  that  lulls  one  into  a  dreamy  inactiv- 
ity, with  the  promise  that  all  will  be 
well,  whether  or  no,  is  sometimes  a  hin- 

cl 


Wisdom  is  oft- 
times  nearer  when  we 
stoop  than  when  we 
soar. — Wordsworth. 


Our  business  in  life 
is  not  to  get  ahead  of 
other  people,  but  to 
get  ahead  of  ourselves. 
— Babcock. 


Have  the  courage 
to  appear  poor,  and 
you  disarm  poverty  of 
its  sharpest  sting. — 
Irving. 


"BOY      WANTED" 


Hope  is  the  real 
riches,  as  fear  is  the 
real  poverty. — Hume. 


Small  pleasures,  de- 
pend upon  it,  lie 
about  us  as  thick  as 
daisies. — ^Jerrold. 


Go  after  two 
wolves,  and  you  will 
not  even  catch  one. 
—  Russian. 


drance  in  the  path  toward  success.    We 
must  not  succumb  too  fully  to 

THE   POWER  OF  HOPE 

Hope  's  a  magical  compound 

To  increase  our  strength,  we  Ve  found, 
It  can  charm  our  bars  and  barriers  all  away. 

With  its  impulse,  which  we  borrow, 

We  can  always  do  to-morrow 
Lots  and  lots  of  things  we  never  do  to-day. 

Hope  is  the  architect  but  brawn  is  the 
builder.  An  architect's  most  elaborate 
design  for  a  mansion,  on  paper,  cannot 
protect  one  from  the  elements  as  well  as 
can  the  crudest  little  cabin  actually  built 
by  hands.  Those  who  spend  much  time 
in  dreaming  wonderful  plans  and  waiting 
for  a  ready-made  success  to  come  and 
hunt  them  up  may  be  interested  in  learn- 
ing about 

HANK    STREETER'S    BRAIN-WAVE 

Hank  Streeter  used  to  sit  around  the  corner  grocery 
store, 
A-telling  of  the  things  he  'd  like  to  do ; 
"But,  pshaw!"  said  Hank,  "it  ain't  no  use  to  tackle 
'em  before 
Fate  settles  in  her  mind  she  '11  help  you  through. 


92 


DREAMING      AND      DOING 


And  't  ain't  no  use  to  waste  your  time  on  triflin' 
things,"  said  he; 
"The  feller  that  secures  the  biggest  plum 
Is   the   one   that   thinks   up   something   that  *s   a 
winner,  so,  you  see, 
I  *m  waitin'  for  a  brain-wave  to  come." 

"The  men  that  make  the  biggest  hits,"  so  Hank 
would  often  say, 
"They  ain't  the  ones,  or  so  I  calculate, 
That  get  their  everlastin'  fame  a-workin'  by  the 
day; 
No,  sir  !     They  sort  o'  grab  it  while  you  wait. 
They  spend  their  time  a-thinkin'   till  they  strike 
some  new  idee 
That 's  big  enough  to  make  the  hull  world  hum." 
"And  that 's  my  plan  for  winnin'  out,"  said  Hank; 
"and  so,"  said  he, 
"I  'm  waitin'  for  a  brain-wave  to  come." 

And  there  he  sat  a-waiting:  in  the  winter  by  the 
stove. 
In  summer-time  he  sat  outside  the  store; 
And,  while  his  busy  neighbors  all  about  him  worked 
and  throve. 
He  just  kept  on  a-talking  more  and  more; 
Kept  on  a-getting  poorer,  and,  while  time  it  hauled 
and  tacked. 
Hank  had  to  make  a  meal  of¥  just  a  crumb, 
Till  death  it  had  to  take  him, —  caught  him  in  the 
very  act 
Of  waiting  for  a  brain-wave  to  come. 


In  all  God's  crea- 
tion there  is  no  place 
appointed  for  the  idle 
man.  —  Gladstone. 


Let  us  endeavor  so 
to  live  that  when  we 
come  to  die  even  the 
undertaker  will  be 
sorry.  —  Mark 
Twain. 


Labor  is  the  genius 
that  changes  the  world 
from  ugliness  to 
beauty,  and  changes 
the  great  curse  to  a 
great  blessing.  —  Opie 
Read. 


93 


BOY      WANTED" 


I  have  seldom 
known  any  one  who 
deserted  truth  in 
trifles  that  could  be 
trusted  in  matters  of 
importance. —  Paley. 


There  are  many 
echoes  in  the  world, 
but  few  voices.  — 
Goethe. 


Consequences  are 
unpitying.  —  George 
Eliot. 


The  man  that 's  born  a  genius, —  well,  I  s'pose 
he  's  bound  to  win, 
But  most  of  us  are  born  the  other  way; 
And,  after  all  is  said  and  done,  the  man  who  pitches 
in 
And  works, — well  he  's  a  genius,  so  they  say. 
If  he  can't  win  a  dollar,  why,  he  tries  to  earn  a 
dime; 
If  he  can't  have  it  all  he  '11  capture  some : 
For  doing  just  the  best  we  can  is  better,  every 
time. 
Than  waiting  for  a  brain-wave  to  come. 

But  it  is  to  be  remembered  that  the 
youth  who  does  not  think  well  of  himself 
is  not  likely  to  do  well.  "Ability,  learn- 
ing, accomplishment,  opportunity,  are 
all  well,"  says  Mathews,  "but  they  do 
not,  of  themselves,  insure  success.  Thou- 
sands have  all  these,  and  live  and  die 
without  benefiting  themselves  or  others. 
On  the  other  hand,  men  of  mediocre  tal- 
ents, often  scale  the  dizzy  steeps  of  excel- 
lence and  fame  because  they  have  firm 
faith  and  high  resolve.  It  is  this  solid 
faith  in  one's  mission — the  rooted  belief 
that  it  is  the  one  thing  to  which  he  has 
been  called, — this  enthusiasm,  attracting 
an  Agassiz  to  the  Alps  or  the  Amazon, 
impelling  a  Pliny  to  explore  the  volcano 
in  which  he  is  to  lose  his  life,  and  nerv- 

94 


DREAMING      AND      DOING 


ing  a  Vernet,  when  tossing  in  a  fierce 
tempest,  to  sketch  the  waste  of  waters, 
and  even  the  wave  that  is  leaping  up  to 
devour  him, — that  marks  the  heroic 
spirit;  and,  wherever  it  is  found,  success, 
sooner  or  later,  is  almost  inevitable." 

The  youth  who  will  start  out  in  life's 
morning  with  a  well-defined  idea  of  the 
goal  he  wishes  to  gain,  and  who  will  keep 
going  in  the  right  direction  need  have 
little  fear  that  his  journey  will  finally 
end  in 

THE  VALLEY  OF  NEVER 

The  city  of  Is  sets  on  top  of  a  hill 

And  if  you  would  learn  of  its  beauty 
Take  Right-Away  street  and  keep  going  until 

You  pass  through  the  gateway  of  Duty. 
But  some  miss  the  way,  though  the  guide-board  is 
plain, 

And  leisurely  wander  forever. 
Sad-hearted  and  weary,  down  By-and-By  lane 

That  leads  to  the  Valley  of  Never. 

If  you  start  in  the  morning  and  follow  the  sun 

With  a  heart  that  is  earnest  and  cheery, 
The  way  is  so  short  that  your  journey  is  done 

Before  you  have  time  to  be  weary. 
But  wait  till  the  day  is  beginning  to  wane 

And  then,  though  you  rightly  endeavor, 
You   are   likely   to  wander   down   By-and-By  lane 

That  leads  to  the  Valley  of  Never. 

95 


They  who  wish  to 
sing  always  find  a 
song. —  Swedish. 


Whoever  in  the 
darkness  lighteth  an- 
other with  a  lamp, 
lighteth  himself  also. 

—  AUERBACH. 


Every  year  of  my 
life  I  grow  more  con- 
vinced that  it  is  wisest 
and  best  to  fix  our  at- 
tention on  the  beauti- 
ful and  good,  and 
dwell  as  little  as  pos- 
sible on  the  dark  and 
base. — Cecil. 


"BOY      WANTED" 


A  little  integrity  is 
better  than  any  career. 
—  Emerson. 


Habit  is  habit,  and 
not  to  be  flung  out  of 
the  window  by  any 
man,  but  coaxed 
downstairs  a  step  at  a 
time. — Mark  Twain. 


Sweep  first  before 
your  own  door,  before 
you  sweep  the  door- 
steps of  your  neigh- 
bors.—  Swedish. 


When  we  come  to  observe  life  very 
closely  we  learn  that  the  law  of  recom- 
pense-is always  in  operation,  and  that 
when  all  things  are  considered,  one  man's 
lot  does  not  seem  so  much  better  or  an- 
other's so  much  worse  than  the  fortune 
of  those  about  him  as  a  superficial  glance 
might  lead  us  to  think.  Says  Hamer- 
ton:  "I  used  to  believe  a  great  deal  more 
in  opportunities  and  less  in  application 
than  I  do  now.  Time  and  health  are 
needed,  but  with  these  there  are  always 
opportunities.  Rich  people  have  a  fancy 
for  spending  money  very  uselessly  on 
their  culture  because  it  seems  to  them 
more  valuable  when  it  has  been  costly; 
but  the  truth  is,  that  by  the  blessing  of 
good  and  cheap  literature,  intellectual 
light  has  become  almost  as  accessible  as 
daylight.  I  have  a  rich  friend  who 
travels  more,  and  buys  more  costly  things 
than  I  do,  but  he  does  not  really  learn 
more  or  advance  farther  in  the  twelve- 
month. If  my  days  are  fully  occupied, 
what  has  he  to  set  against  them?  only 
other  well-occupied  days,  no  more.  If 
he  is  getting  benefit  at  St.  Petersburg  he 
is  missing  the  benefit  I  am  getting  round 
my  house,  and  in  it.  The  sum  of  the 
96 


DREAMING      AND      DOING 


year's  benefit  seems  to  be  surprisingly 
alike  in  both  cases.  So  if  you  are  read- 
ing a  piece  of  thoroughly  good  literature, 
Baron  Rothschild  may  possibly  be  as 
well  occupied  as  you — he  is  certainly  not 
better  occupied.  When  I  open  a  noble 
volume  I  say  to  myself,  'Now  the  only 
Croesus  that  I  envy  is  he  who  is  reading 
a  better  book  than  this.'  " 

There  is  many  a  boy  who  is  quite  sure 
the  neighbor's  boy  has  an  easier  time  and 
a  better  prospect  of  success.  Grown-ups, 
too,  are  frequently  of  the  opinion  that 
they  could  do  so  much  better  if  they  were 
in  somebody  else's  shoes.  Between  the 
success  which  others  attain  and  that 
which  we  achieve,  we  can  very  readily 
distinguish 

THE  DIFFERENCE 

When  the  other  fellow  gets  rich  it 's  luck, 
Just  blundering  luck  that  brings  him  gains, 

But  when  we  win  it 's  a  case  of  pluck 
With  intelligent  effort  and  lots  of  brains. 

The  country  boy  is  sure  that  if  he 
could  get  into  the  large  city  where  there 
are  more  and  greater  chances  for  doing 
things  he  would  make  a  great  success. 
The  city  boy  is  quite  as  certain  that  if  he 

97 


If  you  wish  success 
in  life,  make  persever- 
ance your  bosom 
friend,  experience 
your  wise  counsellor, 
caution  your  elder 
brother,  and  hope 
your  guardian  genius. 
—  Addison. 


Calmness  is  a  great 
advantage.  —  Her- 
bert. 


Man  becomes 
greater  in  proportion 
as  he  learns  to  know 
himself  and  his  fac- 
ulty. Let  him  once 
become  conscious  of 
what  he  is,  and  he 
will  soon  learn  to  be 
what     he    should.  — 

SCHELLING. 


"BOY      WANTED" 


Men  must  know 
that  in  this  theater  of 
man's  it  remaineth 
only  to  God  and  an- 
gels to  be  lookers-on. 
— Bacon. 


It  is  no  man's  busi- 
ness whether  he  is  a 
genius  or  not;  work 
he  must,  whatever  he 
is,  but  quietly  and 
steadily. — Ruskin. 


The  talent  of  suc- 
cess is  nothing  more 
than  doing  what  you 
can  do  well,  without 
a  thought  of  fame. — 
Longfellow. 

/ 


could  get  out  into  a  country  town  where 
the  competition  is  not  so  fierce  and  where 
there  is  more  room  to  grow  he  would  do 
something  worth  while.  In  discussing 
this  subject,  Edward  Bok  says:  "It  is  the 
man,  not  the  place  that  counts.  The 
magnet  of  worth  is  the  drawing  power  in 
business.  It  is  what  you  are,  not  where 
you  are.  If  a  young  man  has  the  right 
stuff  in  him,  he  need  not  fear  where  he 
lives  or  does  his  business.  Many  a  large 
man  has  expanded  in  a  small  place.  The 
idea  that  a  small  place  retards  a  man's 
progress  is  pure  nonsense.  If  the  com- 
munity does  not  offer  facilities  for  a 
growing  business,  they  can  be  brought  to 
it.  Proper  force  can  do  anything.  All 
that  is  needed  is  right  direction.  The 
vast  majority  of  people  are  like  sheep, 
they  follow  a  leader." 

For  the  solace  and  enlightenment  of 
those  who  think  they  are  the  victims  of 
an  unkind  fortune  and  that  conditions 
are  better  elsewhere  I  herewith  offer 
Deacon  Watts's  remarks  concerning 

''VENDER    GRASS" 

"This  world  is  full  of  'yender  grass,'  "  says  Deacon 
Watts  to  me ; 
98 


DREAMING      AND      DOING 


"When  I  'm  a-mowin'  in  the  field,  the  grass  close 

by,"  says  he, 
"Is  short  and  thin  and  full  of  weeds;  but  over 

yender,  why, 
It  looks  to  me  as  if  the  grass  is  thick  and  smooth 

and  high. 
But  sakes  alive!    that  ain't  the  case,  for,  when  I 

mow  to  where 
The  grass  I  saw  from  far  away  looked  all  so  smooth 

and  fair, 
I  find  it  *s  jest  as  short  and  thin  as  all  the  rest,  or 

wuss; 
And  that 's  the  way  the  things  of  earth  keep  on  a- 

foolin'  us ! 

"  'Bout  every  day  you  '11   hear  some  man   com- 

plainin'  of  his  lot. 
And  tellin',  if  he  'd  had  a  chance  like  other  people, 

what 
He  might  have  been !    He  'd  like  to  know  how  he 

can  ever  win 
When  all  the  grass  that  comes  his  way  is  all  so  short 

and  thin. 
But  over  in   the  neighbors'   fields,  why,  he  can 

plainly  see 
That  they  're  in  clover  plumb  knee-deep  and  sweet 

as  sweet  can  be ! 
At  times  it 's  hard  to  tell  if  things  are  made  of 

gold  or  brass; 
Some  men  can't  see  them  distant  fields  are  full  of 

'yender  grass.' 

"I  *ve  learned  one  thing  in  makin'  hay,  and  that 's 
to  fill  my  mow 

99 


Be  not  simply  good, 
be  good  for  some- 
thing.—  Thoreau. 


Progress  depends 
upon  what  we  are, 
rather  than  upon  what 
we  may  encounter. 
One  man  is  stopped 
by  a  sapling  lying 
across  the  road;  an- 
other, passing  that 
way,  picks  up  the  hin- 
drance and  converts  it 
into  a  help  in  crossing 
the  brook  just  ahead. 
— Trumbull. 


Greatness  lies,  not 
in  being  strong,  but 
in  the  right  using  of 
strength.  —  Beecher. 


*'BOY      WANTED" 


Great  is  wisdom; 
infinite  is  the  value  of 
wisdom.  It  cannot 
be  exaggerated;  it  is 
the  highest  achieve- 
ment of  man. —  Car- 

LYLE. 


With  any  grass  that  I  can  get  to  harvest  here  and 

novi7. 
The  'yender  grass'  that  'way  ahead  is  wavin'  in 

its  pride 
I  find  ain't  very  fiUin'  by  the  time  it 's  cut  and 

dried. 
Hope    springs   eternal,    so    they    say,    within    the 

human  breast: 
Man  never  is,  the  sayin'  goes,  but  always  to  be, 

blest. 
So  my  advice  is,  Don't  you  let  your  present  chances 

pass, 
A-thinkin'   by   and   by  you  '11   reap   your   fill   of 

'yender  grass.'  " 


100 


CHAPTER  VIII 

"  TRIFLES  " 

"npRIFLES  make  perfection,  but  per- 

■*•  fection  is  no  trifle."  The  saying 
is  old  but  the  truth  is  ever  new. 

It  is  the  little  things  that  count,  day  by 
day,  in  the  forming  of  character.  The 
way  in  which  we  employ  our  moments 
finally  becomes  the  way  in  which  we  em- 
ploy our  years. 

As  a  matter  of  course  every  boy  will,  if 
he  can,  do  some  big,  beautiful  thing  out 
there  in  the  years  to  come.  But  it  is  a 
foregone  conclusion  that  every  boy  must 
do  a  vast  number  of  little  things  before  he 
shall  do  the  larger  things.  The  "trifles" 
are  always  at  hand  waiting  to  be  done, 
day  after  day,  year  after  year.  And  it  is 
the  way  in  which  a  boy  does  these  little 
things  that  gives  him  the  standing  he 
holds  in  the  estimation  of  those  with 
whom  he  is  intimately  associated. 

"As  the  twig  is  bent,  the  tree's  in- 

lOI 


It  is  ours  to  climb 
and  dare. — Frederick 
Lawrence  Knowlk. 


Oh,  sweet  is  life 
when  youth  is  in  the 
blood.  —  Denis  Mc- 
Carthy. 


Down  in  the  busy 
thoroughfares  are  boys 
the  world  shall  know 
some  day.  —  Samuel 
Ellsworth  Kiser. 


BOY      WANTED" 


To  him  who  presses 
on,  at  each  degree  new 
visions  rise.  —  Julia 
Ward  Howe. 


To  doubt  is  failure, 
and  to  dare,  success. 
—  Frederick  Law- 
rence Knowles. 


It's  nothing  against 
you  to  fall  down  flat, 
but  to  lie  there  is  dis- 
grace. —  Edmund 
Vance  Cooke. 


clined."  A  habit  is  easy  to  form  but  hard 
to  break.  Yet  the  strongest  of  habits  are 
formed  just  a  little  at  a  time — a  small 
strand  is  added  each  day  until  there  is  a 
mighty  cable  that  cannot  be  broken  except 
by  a  mighty  effort.  If  it  is  a  good  habit, 
its  strength  makes  it  all  the  better!  If  it 
is  a  bad  habit,  its  strength  makes  it  so 
much  the  worse. 

Where  is  the  boy  who  cannot  see  the 
fallacy  in  such  illogical  reasoning  as  this : 
"Now,  I  will  be  careless  while  I  am 
young  so  that  I  may  be  careful  when  I  am 
older.  I  will  remain  ignorant  and  poorly 
informed  while  I  am  a  boy,  so  that  I  may 
be  wise  when  I  am  a  man.  I  will  bend 
one  way  while  I  am  a  twig  so  that  I  shall 
incline  in  another  direction  when  I  be- 
come a  tree.  I  will  do  wrong  things  while 
my  character  is  being  formed  so  that  I 
may  do  right  things  when  my  habits  be- 
come fixed."  All  such  reasoning  is  very, 
very  foolish,  isn't  it?  And  yet  there  are 
some  illogical  youths  who  deem  it  will  be 
easy  to  have  one  character  and  disposition 
as  boys  and  quite  a  different  one  when 
they  come  to  be  men.  By  some  strange 
hocus-pocus  they  hope  to  be  able  to  sow 
a  crop  of  "wild  oats"  and  later  on  reap 

102 


"TRIFLES" 

a  harv^est  of  good  wheat.  It  cannot  be 
done. 

Any  farmer's  boy  will  tell  you  that  "as 
ye  sow,  so  shall  ye  reap."  When  the 
farmer  wishes  to  harvest  wheat  he  does 
not  sow  oats.  When  he  wishes  a  crop  of 
potatoes  he  does  not  plant  gourds.  He 
has  learned  that  what  he  plants  in  the 
spring  he  will  harvest  in  the  autumn.  It 
is  equally  as  true  of  life.  That  which 
we  sow  in  youth  we  reap  in  our  maturer 
years.  We  must  not  try  to  deceive  na- 
ture and  our  own  consciences.  We  shall 
get  back  from  the  years  what  we  give  to 
the  years. 

The  boy  who  early  gets  into  the  habit 
of  doing  things  right  is  pretty  sure  to  go 
on  doing  them  so  all  his  life,  and  with- 
out much  effort  on  his  part.  The  will 
is  strengthened  by  exercise  in  the  same 
manner  as  are  the  muscles.  We  learn  to 
do  easily  that  which  we  do  often. 

The  youth  who  says  "No"  to  little 
temptations  will,  later  on  in  life,  be  per- 
fectly able  to  say  "No"  to  temptations 
of  any  size.  And  how  many  a  man's 
career  has  been  made  glorious  simply 
because  he  learned,  while  a  youth,  to 
say  "No"  whenever  his  moral  conscience 

103 


Do  it  right  now  and 
do  it   well.  — John 

ToWNSEND      T  R  O  W  - 
BRIDGE. 


Condemn  no  creed! 
Dig  deep  beneath  the 
sod  and  at  the  root 
thou 'It  find  the  truth 
of  God.  — Alicia  K. 
Van  Buren. 


It  is  adversity,  not 
prosperity,  which 
breeds  men ;  as  it  is  the 
storm,  and  not  the 
calm,  which  makes  the 
mariner. — Melvin  L. 
Severy. 


"BOY      WANTED" 


The  slow  long  way 
may  be  the  best.  — 
Nathan  Haskell 
Dole. 


He  who  lifts  his 
brother  man  in  turn  is 
lifted  by  him. — John 
TowNSEND    Trow- 

BRIDGE. 


As  the  twig  is  arche- 
typal of  the  tree,  so 
childhood  builds  the 
ladder  up  which  man- 
hood climbs.  —  Mel- 
viN  L.  Severy. 


told  him  it  was  the  thing  he  should 
say!  How  true  are  the  teachings  of  the 
wise  moralist  who  tells  us:  "A  very  little 
word  is  *No.'  It  is  composed  of  but 
two  letters  and  forms  only  one  syllable. 
In  meaning  it  is  so  definite  as  to  defy 
misunderstanding.  Your  lips  find  its 
articulation  easy.  Diminutive  in  size, 
evident  in  import,  easy  of  utterance,  fre- 
quent in  use,  and  necessary  in  ordinary 
speech,  it  seems  one  of  the  simplest  and 
most  harmless  of  all  words.  Yet  there 
are  those  to  whom  it  is  almost  a  terror. 
Its  sound  makes  them  afraid.  They 
would  expurgate  it  from  their  vocabulary 
if  they  could.  The  little  monosyllable 
sticks  in  their  throat.  Their  pliable  and 
easy  temper  inclines  them  to  conformity, 
and  frequently  works  their  bane.  As- 
sailed by  the  solicitations  of  pleasure 
they  are  sure  to  yield,  for  at  once  and 
resolutely  they  will  not  repeat  'No!' 
Plied  with  the  intoxicating  cup  they  sel- 
dom overcome,  for  their  facile  nature 
refuses  to  express  itself  in  'No!'  En- 
countering temptation  in  the  hard  and 
duteous  path  they  are  likely  to  falter  and 
fall,  for  they  have  not  the  boldness  to 
speak  out  the  decided  negative  'No!' 
104 


"TRIFLES" 

Amid  the  mists  of  time,  and  involved  in 
the  labyrinthine  mazes  of  error,  they  are 
liable  to  forget  eternal  verities  and  join 
in  the  ribald  jest,  for  they  have  not  been 
accustomed  to  utter  an  emphatic  'No!' 
All  the  noble  souls  and  heroes  of  history 
have  held  themselves  ready,  whenever  it 
v^^as  demanded,  to  say  'No!'  The  poet 
said  'No!'  to  the  sloth  and  indolence 
which  was  consuming  his  precious  hours, 
and  wove  for  himself  in  heavenly  song  a 
garland  of  immortality." 

"No"  might  seem  to  be  but  a  mere 
trifle  of  a  word  yet  the  boy  who  learns  to 
say  it  on  every  right  occasion  has  already 
conquered  many  of  the  foes  that  are 
likely  to  beset  him  along  life's  pathway. 
Every  boy  should  cultivate  his  will  until 
it  is  strong  enough  for  him  to  depend 
upon  it  at  all  times.  With  the  proper 
amount  of  will  he  is  sure  to  have  suffi- 
cient "won't"  to  resist  all  the  tempta- 
tions that  wrong  may  offer  him. 

In  developing  a  strength  that  enables 
him  to  say  "No!"  to  wrong  things  a  boy 
becomes  strong  enough  to  say  "Yes!"  to 
right  things.  His  "I  won't!"  with  which 
he  meets  wrong  suggestions  engenders 
his  "I  will!"  toward  the  wholesome  and 


AH  that  wc  send 
into  thelites  of  others 
comes  back  into  our 
own. — Edwin  Mark- 
ham. 


The  greatest,  strong- 
est, most  skilled  is  he 
who  knows  how  to 
wait,  and  wait  pa- 
tiently. — C  H  A  R  L  E  s 
THE  Ninth. 


The  man  in  whom 
others  believe  is  a 
power,  but  if  he  be- 
lieves in  himself  he  is 
doubly  powerful.  — 
Willis  George  Em- 
erson. 


105 


BOY      WANTED" 


One  forgives  every- 
thing in  him  who  for- 
gives himself  nothing. 
— Chinese. 


Not  in  rewards, 
bit  in  the  strength  to 
strive,  the  blessing  lies. 
—  John  Townsend 
Trowbridge. 


It  makes  consider- 
able difference  whether 
a  man  talks  bigger  than 
he  is,  or  is  bigger  than 
he  talks.  —  Patrick 
Flynn. 


commendable  undertakings  in  which  he 
should  be  interested. 

When  a  boy  has  learned  to  say,  and 
to  feel  the  strength  that  is  in  the  words, 
"I  will  I"  he  ceases  to  make  use  of  the 
words,  "I  wish,"  for  his  will  is  sufficient 
to  make  his  wish  a  living  reality.  And 
what  a  world  of  difference  there  is  be- 
tween the  involved  meanings  of  the 
words, 

"  I  WISH  "  AND  "  I  WILL  " 

"I  Wish"  and  "I  Will,"  so  my  grandmother  says, 
Were  two  little  boys  in  the  long,  long  ago, 

And  "I  Wish"  used  to  sigh  while  "I  Will"  used 
to  try 

For  the  things  he  desired,  at  least  that  's  what  my 
Grandma  tells  me,  and  she  ought  to  know. 

"I  Wish"  was  so  weak,  so  my  grandmother  says, 
That  he  longed  to  have  someone  to  help  him 
about. 

And  while  he  'd  stand  still  and  look  up  at  the  hill 
And  sigh  to  be  there  to  go  coasting,  "I  Will" 
Would  glide  past  him  with  many  a  shout. 

They  grew  to  be  men,  so  my  grandmother  says. 
And    all    that   "I    Wish"    ever   did    was    to 
dream — 
To  dream,  and  to  sigh  that  life's  hill  was  so  high, 
io6 


''TRIFLES 


While  "I  Will"  went  to  work  and  soon  learned, 
if  we  try, 
Hills  are  never  so  steep  as  they  seem. 

"I  Wish"  lived  in  want,  so  my  grandmother  says, 

But  "I  Will"  had  enough  and  a  portion  to 

spare : 

Whatever  he  thought  was  worth  winning  he  sought 

With  an  earnest  and  patient  endeavor  that  brought 

Of  blessings  a  bountiful  share. 

And  whenever  my  grandma  hears  any  one  "wish," 

A  method  she  seeks,  in  his  mind  to  instill. 
For  increasing  his  joys,  and  she  straightway  employs 
The  lesson  she  learned  from  the  two  little  boys 
Whose  names  were  "I  Wish"  and  "I  Will." 


"Trifles"  are  the  beginnings  of  things 
which  finally  develop  into  all  that  is 
worth  while. 

The  acorn  is  a  trifle,  yet  within  it  is 
hidden  an  oak  tree,  and  a  whole  forest 
of  oak  trees.  The  tiny  little  brooklet  is 
only  a  trifle  yet  it  flows  on  and  on  till 
it  becomes  a  mighty  river. 

The  first  rude  little  pencil  sketch  made 
by  the  child  that  has  an  inborn  love  of 
drawing  is  but  a  trifle,  yet  it  may  be  the 
beginning  of  an  art  career  that  shall 
brighten  the  whole  world. 

107 


No  man  doth  safely 
rule  but  he  that  hath 
learned  gladly  to  obey. 
— Thomas  a  Kempis. 


By  varied  discipline 
man  slowly  learns  his 
part  in  what  the  Mas- 
ter Mind  has  planned. 
—  Nathan  Haskell 
Dole. 


It  is  a  ridiculous 
thing  for  a  man  not  to 
fly  from  his  own  bad- 
ness, which  indeed  is 
possible,  but  to  fly 
from  other  men's  bad- 
ness, which  is  impos- 
sible. —  Marcus  Au- 


"BOY      WANTED" 


Yet  with  steadfast 
courage  that  rather 
would  die  than  turn 
back. — Nathan  Has- 
kell Dole. 


One  thing  we  must 
never  forget,  namely : 
that  the  infinitely  most 
important  work  for  us 
is  the  humane  educa- 
tion of  the  millions  who 
are  soon  to  come  on 
the  stage  of  action, — 
George  T.  Angell. 


In  every  sincere  and 
earnest  man's  heart 
God  has  placed  a  little 
niche  where  the  poetic, 
the  spectacular,  and 
the  legendary  hold  full 
sway.  —  Willis 
George  Emerson. 


The  first  few  lines  written  by  the  em- 
bryo poet  constitute  but  a  trifle,  yet  with 
a  word  of  encouragement  it  may  some- 
time be  followed  by  songs  that  shall  make 
all  mankind  happier  and  better. 

It  was  just  a  trifling  incident  that  de- 
veloped one  of  the  greatest  vocalists  the 
world  has  ever  known.  We  are  told  that 
Jenny  Lind,  at  the  beginning  of  her  life, 
was  a  poor,  neglected  little  girl,  homely 
and  uncouth,  living  in  a  single  room  of 
a  tumble-down  house  in  a  narrow  street 
at  Stockholm.  When  the  humble  woman 
who  had  her  in  charge  went  out  to  her 
daily  labor,  she  was  accustomed  to  lock 
Jenny  in  with  her  sole  companion,  a  cat. 
One  day  the  little  girl,  who  was  always 
singing  to  herself  like  a  canary-bird, 
"because,"  as  she  said,  "the  song  was  in 
her  and  must  come  out,"  sat  with  her 
dumb  companion  at  the  window  war- 
bling her  sweet  child-like  notes.  She  was 
overheard  by  a  passing  lady,  who  paused 
and  listened,  struck  by  the  trill  and  clear- 
ness of  the  untutored  notes.  She  made 
careful  inquiry  about  the  child  and  be- 
came the  patroness  of  the  little  Jenny  who 
was  at  once  supplied  with  a  music- 
teacher.     She  loved  the  art  of  song,  and 

io8 


''TRIFLES" 


having  a  true  genius  for  it  she  made 
rapid  progress,  surprising  both  patroness 
and  teachers,  and  presently,  became  the 
world's  "Queen  of  Song." 

How  trifling  was  the  incident  that 
brought  about,  by  a  happy  accident,  the 
development  of  the  genius  which  slept  in 
the  soul  of  the  sculptor  Canova!  A  su- 
perb banquet  was  being  prepared  in  the 
palace  of  the  Falieri  family  in  Venice. 
The  tables  were  already  arranged,  when 
it  was  discovered  that  a  crowning  orna- 
ment of  some  sort  was  required  to  com- 
plete the  general  effect  of  the  banqueting 
board.  Canova's  grandfather,  who 
brought  him  up,  was  a  stone-cutter,  often 
hewing  out  stone  ornaments  for  archi- 
tects; and  as  he  lived  close  at  hand,  he 
was  hastily  consulted  by  the  steward  of 
the  Falieris.  Canova  chanced  to  go  with 
his  grandfather  to  view  the  tables,  and 
overheard  the  conversation.  Though  but 
a  child  his  quick  eye  and  ready  genius 
at  once  suggested  a  suitable  design  for 
the  apex  of  the  principal  dishes.  "Give 
me  a  plate  of  cold  butter,"  said  the  boy; 
and  seating  himself  at  a  side  table  he 
rapidly  moulded  a  lion  of  proper  pro- 
portions,   and   so   true   to   nature    in    its 

109 


The  generous  heart 
should  scorn  a  pleasure 
which  gives  others 
pain. — Anonymous. 


Neither  education 
nor  riches  can  take  the 
place  of  character,  yet 
we  can  all  get  as  much 
character  as  we  want. 
— Patrick   Flynn. 


A  teacher  who  can 
arouse  a  feeling  for  one 
single  good  action,  for 
one  single  good  poem, 
accomplishes  more 
than  he  who  fills  our 
memory  with  rows  on 
rows  of  natural  objects, 
classified  with  name 
and    form. — Goethe. 


"BOY      WANTED" 


A  good  conscience 
expects  to  be  treated 
with  perfect  c  o  n  fi- 
dcnce. — Victor  Hu- 


Build  new  domes  of 
thought  in  your  mind, 
and  presently  you  will 
find  that  instead  of 
your  finding  the  eter- 
nal life,  the  eternal  life 
has  found  you. — Jen- 
kin  Lloyd  Jones. 


There  is  no  power 
on  earth  that  can  en- 
slave a  man  who  is 
mentally  free  ;  no 
power  that  can  free  a 
man  who  is  mentally 
enslaved.  —  Patrick 
Flynn. 


pose  and  detail  as  to  astonish  all  present. 
It  was  put  in  place  and  proved  to  be  the 
most,  striking  ornamental  feature  of  the 
feast.  When  the  guests,  on  being  seated, 
discovered  the  lion,  they  exclaimed  aloud 
w^ith  admiration,  and  demanded  to  see 
at  once  the  person  who  could  perform 
such  a  miracle  impromptu.  Canova  was 
brought  before  them,  and  his  boyish  per- 
son only  heightened  their  wonder.  From 
that  hour  the  head  of  the  opulent  Falieri 
family  became  his  kind,  appreciative, 
liberal  patron.  Canova  was  placed  under 
the  care  of  the  best  sculptors  of  Venice 
and  Rome  and  became  a  grand  master 
of  his  art. 

But  it  may  be  truthfully  said  that 
every  boy  does  not  possess  some  latent 
genius,  waiting  to  be  discovered  by  some 
one  who  will  foster  and  develop  it. 
Then  there  is  all  the  more  need  of  mak- 
ing the  very  most  of  the  small  talents 
one  may  possess.  One  need  not  be  a 
Canova,  or  a  Shakespeare,  in  order  that 
he  may  become  something  worth  while 
to  those  with  whom  he  dwells  in  close 
association. 

Every  nook  and  corner  of  the  world 
is  waiting  for  the   fine  characters   that 


no 


"TRIFLES" 

are  to  make  it  a  pleasant  place  in  which  to 
dwell.  Blest  is  that  household,  however 
humble,  in  which  there  are  bright, 
manly,  truthful,  kind-hearted  boys,  ever 
ready  to  make  the  hours  brighter, 
and  the  home  dearer,  by  their  tender 
thoughtfulness  of  those  about  them. 

Are  you  going  to  win  the  admiration 
of  the  world,  by  and  by? 

Have  you  already  won  the  admiration 
of  that  little,  all-important  world  that 
now  lies  just  about  you?  Does  the 
mother,  or  father,  or  sister,  or  brother, 
who  knows  you  best,  hold  you  in  the 
highest  esteem.  If  you  do  not  win  the 
love  of  those  who  know  you  so  well,  how 
can  you  hope  to  be  loved  by  the  world 
which  can  never  come  into  such  close 
and  tender  relations  with  you? 

Do  not  wait  for  some  big  event  out 
there  in  the  years  to  come.  Begin  just 
here  and  now,  by  seizing  upon  the 
"trifles"  that  lie  all  about  you.  The 
great  wall  of  solid  masonry  is  not  put 
into  place  all  at  once ;  it  is  laid  patiently 
and  carefully,  brick  by  brick.  So  man- 
hood must  be  built  a  "trifle"  at  a  time 
until  a  character  is  established  that  temp- 
tation cannot  totter  to  the  earth. 


He  who  is  plente- 
ous) y  provided  from 
within,  needs  but  little 
from  without.  — 
Goethe. 


Write  it  on  your 
heart  that  every  day 
is  the  best  day  in  the 
year.  No  man  has 
learned  anything 
rightly,  until  he  knows 
that  every  day  is 
Doomsday.  —  Emer- 
son. 


Do  not  sing  with  a 
too  exact  correctness. 
Put  in  personality. — 
William  Tomlins. 


Ill 


''BOY      WANTED" 


Tyranny  is  always 
weakness.  —  James 
Russell  Lowell. 


If  we  see  rightly 
and  mean  rightly,  we 
shall  get  on,  though 
the  hand  may  stagger 
a  little;  but  if  we  mean 
wrongly,  or  mean 
nothing,  it  does  not 
matter  how  firm  the 
hand  is. — Ruskin. 


It  is  better  to  hold 
back  a  truth  than  to 
speak  it  ungraciously. 
—  St.  Francis  de 
Sales. 


And  every  boy  ought  to  thank  his 
lucky  stars  that  he  does  not  have  to  wait 
for  some  special  occasion  to  offer  itself 
before  he  can  begin  to  develop  the  traits 
that  shall  waken  the  warmest  regard  of 
those  about  him,  and  bring  to  his  own 
sense  of  well-doing  the  reward  born  of 
all  virtue.  This  very  day  there  are  many 
"trifles"  strewn  in  his  pathway.  If  he 
shall  make  the  most  of  them,  larger  op- 
portunities will  be  vouchsafed  him.  The 
one  important  consideration  is  whether 
he  is  ready  to  begin  to  build  at  the  pres- 
ent moment,  and  to  utilize  the  splendid 
"trifles"  all  about  him,  or  will  procras- 
tinate till  such  time  as  he  can  by  some 
great  sweep  of  action,  establish  his  repu- 
tation all  at  once  and  full-born.  If  he 
has  decided  on  the  latter  course  he 
should  be  moved  to  give  the  most  earnest 
and  serious  consideration  to  the  startling 
differences  that  exist  between 


"  NOW  "  AND  "  WAITAWHILE  " 

Little   Jimmie   "  Waitawhile "    and    little   Johnnie 

"Now" 
Grew  up  in  homes  just  side  by  side  ;  and  that,  you 

see,  is  how 

112 


"T  R  I  F  L  E  S" 


I  came  to  know  them  both  so  well,  for  almost  every 

day 
I  used  to  watch  them  in  their  work  and  also  in  their 

play. 

Little  Jimmie  "  Waitawhile  "  was  bright  and  steady, 

too, 
But  never  ready  to  perform  what  he  was  asked  to  do ; 
"Walt  just  a  minute,"  he  would  say,  "I  '11  do  it 

pretty  soon," 
And  tasks  he  should  have  done  at  morn  were  never 

done  at  noon. 

He  put  off  studying  until  his  boyhood  days  were 

gone  ; 
He  put  oH  getting  him  a  home  till  age  came  stealing 

on; 
He  put  ofiE  everything,  and  so  his  life  was  not  a  joy, 
And  all  because  he  waited  "just  a  minute"  when  a 

boy. 

But  little  Johnnie  "Now"  would  say,  when  he  had 

work  to  do, 
"There  's  no  time  like  the  present  time,"  and  gaily 

put  it  through. 
And  when  his  time  for  play  arrived  he  so  enjoyed 

the  fun ! 
His  mind  was  not  distressed  with  thoughts  of  duties 

left  undone. 

In  boyhood  he  was  studious  and  laid  him  out  a  plan 
Of  action  to  be  followed  when  he  grew  to  be  a  man ; 

"3 


It  is  ever  true  that 
he  who  does  nothing 
for  others,  does  noth- 
ing for  himself.  — 
George  Sand. 


The  artist  who  can 
realize  his  ideal  has 
missed  the  true  gain  of 
art,  as  "a  man's  reach 
should  exceed  h  i  s 
grasp,  or  what's 
heaven    for?" — Ed. 

WARD  DOWDEN. 


Keep  but  ever  look- 
ing, whether  with  the 
body's  eye  or  the 
mind's  and  you  will 
soon  find  something  to 
look  on. — Browning. 


"BOY      WANTED" 


Great  hearts  alone 
understand  how  much 
glory  there  is  in  being 
good.  To  be  and 
keep  so  is  not  the  gift 
of  a  happy  nature 
alone,  but  it  is  strength 
and  heroism. —  Jules 

MiCHELET. 


And  life  was  as  he  willed  it,  all  because  he  'd  not 

allow 
His  tasks  to  be  neglected,  but  would  always  do  them 

"now." 

And  so  in  every  neighborhood  are  scores  of  growing 
boys 

Who,  by  and  by,  must  work  with  tools  when  they 
have  done  with  toys. 

And  you  know  one  of  them,  I  guess,  because  I  see 
you  smile ; 

And  is  he  little  Johnnie  "Now"  or  Jimmie  "Wait- 
awhile"? 


114 


CHAPTER  IX 


THE    WORTH    OF    ADVICE 

r)F  what  value  is  this  book  to  you? 
^^^  Perhaps  there  is  more  involved  in 
the  answer  to  this  question  than  a  careless 
consideration  of  it  might  lead  one  to 
think.  Shakespeare  says:  "A  jest's  pros- 
perity lies  in  the  ear  of  him  that  hears  it, 
never  in  the  tongue  of  him  that  makes 
it." 

So  it  is  that  the  value  of  advice  de- 
pends not  so  much  upon  the  giver  as  it 
does  upon  the  one  who  receives  it. 

Emerson  has  observed  that  he  who 
makes  a  tour  of  Europe  brings  home 
from  that  country  only  as  much  as  he 
takes  there  with  him.  This  same  truth 
holds  good  in  the  reading  of  books  and 
in  listening  to  sermons  and  lectures.  He 
that  has  not  eyes  with  which  to  see,  will 
see  nothing.  He  that  has  not  ears  with 
which  to  hear,  can  hear  nothing. 

A  sign-post  indicating  which  road  to 

"5 


Courage  is  a  virtue 
that  the  young  cannot 
spare;  to  lose  it  is  to 
grow  old  before  the 
time  ;  it  is  better  to 
make  a  thousand  mis- 
takes and  suffer  a  thou- 
sand reverses  than  to 
run  awray  from  the  bat- 
tle.— Henry  Van 
Dyke. 


He  needs  no  other 
rosary  w^hose  thread 
of  life  is  strung  writh 
beads  of  love  and 
thought. — Persian. 


BOY      WANTED" 


Truth  is  a  cork  ;  it 
is  bound  to  come  to 
the  top.  —  Willis 
George  Emerson. 


He  who  will  not 
answer  to  the  rudder 
must  answer  to  the 
rock.  —  Archbishop 
Herve. 


It  is  not  erudition 
that  makes  the  intel- 
lectual man,  but  a  sort 
of  virtue  which  delights 
in  vigorous  and  beau- 
tiful thinking,  just  as 
moral  virtue  delights 
in  vigorous  and  beau- 
tiful conduct. — Ham- 

MERTON. 


take  to  reach  a  certain  destination  surely 
ought  to  be  of  great  value  to  a  traveler 
in  a -Strange  land.  If  the  traveler,  hav- 
ing failed  to  cultivate  the  habit  of  ob- 
serving his  surroundings,  passes  by  the 
sign-post  without  seeing  it,  or  if  he  reads 
its  directions  and  says  to  himself:  "I 
think  I  know  better;  I  shall  reach  my 
destination  by  whatever  road  I  choose 
to  travel,"  then  the  sign-post  is  of  no  true 
use  to  him.  Not  that  it  is  not  a  good 
sign-post.  No,  the  sign-post  is  all  right; 
it  is  the  traveler  who  is  wrong.  He  must 
go  his  own  way  and,  perhaps,  journey 
far,  and  fare  sadly  before  he  arrives  at 
the  place  he  seeks — the  destination  he 
might  have  reached  pleasantly  and  in 
good  season.  Franklin  tells  us  that  ex- 
perience is  a  dear  teacher  but  fools  will 
learn  from  no  other. 

Now  this  book  which  you  hold  in 
your  hand  is  only  a  guide-post,  or  per- 
haps we  had  better  call  it  a  guide-book. 
It  is  intended  for  the  use  of  the  boys  of 
our  land  and  all  other  persons  who  are 
not  too  old  or  too  wise  to  learn  more. 

Every  boy  is  starting  out  on  a  long, 
interesting,  and  tremendously  important 
journey.     It  will  lie  mostly  through  a 

Ii6 


THE      WORTH       OF      ADVICE 


strange  country  and  is  a  journey  which 
must,  in  a  very  large  sense,  be  traveled 
alone  by  each  individual  person.  There 
are  many  partings  of  the  ways;  many 
perplexing  forks  in  the  road. 

The  thoughtful  boy  will  ever  feel 
called  upon  to  ask  his  highest  under- 
standing: "Which  is  the  right  road  for 
me  to  take?"  He  will  not  carelessly  pass 
by  the  sign-posts  without  learning  what 
they  have  to  tell  him,  nor  will  he  forget 
or  refuse  to  be  guided  by  their  instruc- 
tions and  admonitions. 

If  a  sign  post  says:  "Danger!  Go 
Slowly!"  he  will  govern  his  movements 
accordingly.  If  the  sign-post  says : "  Rail- 
road Crossing.  Beware  of  the  Engine!" 
he  will  not  blindly  plunge  ahead  with- 
out waiting  to  see  if  his  course  is  clear. 
He  will  understand  that  many  others 
have  traveled  the  way  before  him  and 
have  learned  by  experience  that  it  is  well 
for  all  to  take  heed  and  do  as  the  sign- 
post directs. 

This  life-long  pathway  upon  which 
every  boy  is  sta,rting  is  a  winding,  intri- 
cate, interesting  way,  and  many  there  are 
who  turn  into  the  wrong  roads  that  are 
ever  leading  off  from  the  main-traveled 

117 


Give  what  you  have. 
To  some  one  it  may 
be  better  than  you 
dare  to  think. — Long- 
fellow. 


There  are  men  who 
complain  that  roses 
have  thorns.  They 
should  be  grateful  to 
know  that  thorns  have 
roses. — Max  O'  Rell. 


I  think  the  best  way 
of  doing  good  to  the 
poor  is  not  making 
them  easy  in  poverty, 
but  leading  or  driving 
them  out  of  it. — Ben- 
jamin Franklin. 


"BOY      WANTED" 


Those  who  bring 
sunshine  into  the  lives 
of  others  cannot  keep 
it  from  themselves. — 
Barrie. 


There  is  a  certain 
sweetness  and  elegance 
in  **  little  deeds  of 
kindness,"  and  in  let- 
ting our  best  impulses 
have  free  play  on  com- 
mon occasions. —  Jo- 
seph May. 


The  school  of  the 
intellectual  man  is  the 
place  where  he  hap- 
pens to  be,  and  his 
teachers  are  the  people, 
books,  animals,  plants, 
stones,  and  earth  round 
about  him. — Hammer- 
ton. 


track.  It  is  the  purpose  of  this  volume 
to  serve  as  a  guide-book  for  the  boy  w^ho 
desires  to  reach  Happiness  and  Helpful- 
ness, Prosperity  and  Splendid  Manhood 
in  the  most  direct  and  efficient  manner. 
At  every  turn  of  life's  w^ay  it  v^ill  vs^arn 
him  from  the  blind  paths  that  w^ould 
bring  him,  by  the  way  of  Idleness,  Care- 
lessness, Ignorance,  and  Extravagance,  to 
the  unfortunate  land  of  Failure,  of 
Broken  Hopes,  and  of  Life  Misspent. 

"A  word  spoken  in  due  season,  how 
good  is  it!"  In  these  pages  over  which 
your  eye  is  passing  are  spoken  the  words 
of  a  large  and  distinguished  company  of 
the  world's  best  and  wisest  men  and  wo- 
men. Emerson  says:  "Every  book  is  a 
quotation ;  every  house  is  a  quotation  out 
of  all  forests,  and  mines,  and  stone-quar- 
ries, and  every  man  is  a  quotation  from 
all  his  ancestors." 

"In  the  multitude  of  counsellors  there 
is  safety."  The  value  of  well-selected 
quotations  to  serve  as  finger-posts  to 
guide  us  day  by  day  is  thus  set  forth  by 
the  great  German  poet,  Goethe:  "What- 
ever may  be  said  against  such  collections 
which  present  authors  in  a  disjointed 
form  they  nevertheless  bring  about  many 

ii8 


THE      WORTH       OF      ADVICE 


excellent  results.  We  are  not  always  so 
composed,  so  full  of  wisdom,  that  we 
are  able  to  take  in  at  once  the  whole 
scope  of  a  work  according  to  its  merits. 
Do  we  not  mark  in  a  book  passages 
which  seem  to  have  a  direct  reference 
to  ourselves?  Young  people  especially, 
who  have  failed  in  acquiring  a  complete 
cultivation  of  the  mind,  are  roused  in  a 
praiseworthy  way  by  brilliant  quota- 
tions." 

And  if  it  shall  so  happen  that  some 
word  or  sentence  or  sentiment  contained 
in  this  book  shall  rouse  in  a  praiseworthy 
way  just  one  boy — the  very  boy  whose 
thought  is  dwelling  on  these  lines  at  this 
very  moment — all  of  this  labor  of  love 
shall  have  been  abundantly  rewarded. 
For  just  one  boy  roused  to  his  best  efforts 
can  grandly  gladden  his  own  home  circle 
and,  perchance,  the  whole  wide  world. 

"Why,  the  world  is  at  a  boy's  feet," 
says  Burdette,  "and  power,  conquest,  and 
leadership  slumber  in  his  rugged  arms 
and  care-free  heart.  A  boy  sets  his  am- 
bition at  whatever  mark  he  will — lofty 
or  grovelling,  as  he  may  elect — and  the 
boy  who  resolutely  sets  his  heart  on  fame, 
on  health,  on  power,  on  what  he  will ; 

119 


Heroism  is  simple 
and  yet  it  is  rare. 
Everyone  who  does 
the  best  he  can  is  a 
hero. — Josh  Billings. 


One  of  the  dearest 
thoughts  to  me  is  this 
—  a  real  friend  will 
never  get  away  from 
me,  or  try  to,  or  want 
to.  Love  does  not 
have  to  be  tethered. 
— Anna  R.  Brown. 


In  all  situations 
wherein  a  living  man 
has  stood  or  can  stand, 
there  is  actually  a  prize 
of  quite  infinite  value 
placed  within  his  reach 
— namely,  a  Duty  for 
him  to  do. — Carlyle. 


BOY      WANTED" 


To  have  what  we 
want  is  riches,  but  to 
be  able  to  do  without 
is  power.  —  George 
MacDonald. 


Let  every  man  be 
occupied  in  the  high- 
est employment  o  f 
which  his  nature  is  ca- 
pable, and  die  with 
the  consciousness  that 
he  has  done  his  best. 
— Sydney  Smith. 


Of  course  I  know 
that  it  is  better  to  build 
a  cathedral  than  to 
make  a  boot ;  but  1 
think  it  better  actually 
to  make  a  boot  than 
only  to  dream  about 
building  a  cathedral. — 
Ellen  Thornycroft 
Fowler. 


who  consecrates  every  faculty  of  his  mind 
and  body  on  ambition,  courage,  industry, 
and  patience,  can  trample  on  genius;  for 
these  are  better  and  grander  than  genius." 
The  past  is  gone  forever;  the  present 
is  so  brief  and  fleeting  we  can  scarcely 
call  it  our  own;  in  the  future  lies  our 
larger,  better  hope  of  a  happier  civiliza- 
tion. Not  the  men  of  yesterday,  not  the 
men  of  to-day,  but  the  men  of  to-morrow, 
the  boys,  are  the  ones  who  are  to  make 
the  world  right.    They  are 

THE   WORLD'S   VICTORS 

Hurrah  for  the  beacon-lights  of  earth, — 

The  brave,  triumphant  boys ! 
Hurrah  for  their  joyous  shouts  of  mirth, 

And  their  blood-bestirring  noise! 
The  bliss  of  being  shall  never  die, 

Nor  the  old  world  seem  depressed 
While  a  boy's  stout  heart  is  beating  high, 

Like  a  glad  drum  in  his  breast. 

Ye  wise  professors  of  bookish  things, 

That  burden  the  souls  of  men. 
Go  trade  your  lore  for  a  boy's  glad  vv^ings. 

And  fly  to  the  stars  again. 
Nor  grope  through  a  shrunken,  shrivelled  world 

That  the  years  have  made  uncouth. 
But  march  'neath  the  flaunting  flags  unfurled 

By  the  valiant  hands  of  youth. 

120 


THE      WORTH      OF      ADVICE 


Oh,  never  the  lamp  of  age  burns  low 

In  its  cold  and  empty  cup. 
But  youth  comes  by  with  his  face  aglow, 

And  a  beacon-light  leaps  up. 
The  gloomiest  skies  grow  bright  and  gay, 

And  the  whispered  clouds  of  doubt 
Are  swept  from  the  brows  of  the  world  away 

By  a  boy's  triumphant  shout. 

Of  the  multitudes  of  boys  who  are  to 
become  the  world's  victors,  he  will  suc- 
ceed best  who  earliest  in  life  learns  care- 
fully to  observe  and  to  appreciate  the 
character  of  his  surroundings,  and  to 
build  into  the  structure  of  his  manhood 
the  high  and  abiding  influences  that  come 
to  his  hands.  As  one  of  our  great 
thinkers  given  to  deep  introspection  has 
so  impressively  said,  life,  itself,  may  be 
compared  to  a  building  in  the  course  of 
construction.  It  rises  slowly,  day  by 
day,  through  the  years.  Every  new  les- 
son we  learn  lays  a  block  on  the  edifice 
which  is  rising  silently  within  us.  Every 
experience,  every  touch  of  another  life 
on  ours,  every  influence  that  impresses 
us,  every  book  we  read,  every  conversa- 
tion we  have,  every  act  of  our  commonest 
days  adds  to  the  invisible  building. 

Plenty  of  good,  wholesome  play  and 


The  most  enviable 
of  all  titles  is  the  char- 
acter of  an  honest 
man. — Abraham  Lin- 
coln. 


An  act  of  yours  is 
not  simply  the  thing 
you  do,  but  it  is  also 
the  way  you  do  it. — 
Phillips  Brooks. 


Always  say  a  kind 
word  if  you  can,  if 
only  that  it  may  come 
in,  perhaps,  with  sin- 
gular opportuneness, 
entering  some  mourn- 
ful man's  darkened 
room  like  a  beautiful 
firefly,  whose  happy 
convolutions  he  cannot 
but  watch,  forgetting 
his  many  troubles. — 
Arthur  Helps. 


BOY      WANTED" 


Not  in  war,  not  in 
wealth,  not  in  tyranny, 
is  there  any  happiness 
to  be  found — only  in 
kindly  peace,  fruitful 
and  free. — Ruskin. 


You  must  help  your 
fbllow-men  ;  but  the 
only  way  you  can  help 
them  is  by  being  the 
noblest  and  the  best 
man  that  it  is  possible 
for  you  to  be. — Phil- 
lips Brooks. 


The  humblest  sub- 
scriber to  a  mechanics' 
institute  has  easier  ac- 
cess to  sound  learning 
than  had  cither  Solo- 
mon or  Aristotle,  yet 
both  Solomon  and  Ar- 
istotle lived  the  intel- 
lectual   life.  —  Ham- 

MERTON. 


healthful  recreation,  every  boy  needs  and 
must  have  if  he  means  to  round  out  a 
fine  physical  and  moral  development,  but 
idleness  and  indifference,  evils  that  creep 
into  the  hours  that  are  given  up  to  some- 
thing that  is  neither  work  nor  play,  must 
never  be  tolerated.  "The  ruin  of  most 
men  dates  from  some  vacant  hour,"  says 
Hillard.  "Occupation  is  the  armor  of 
the  soul ;  and  the  train  of  Idleness  is  borne 
up  by  all  the  vices.  I  remember  a  sa- 
tirical poem,  in  which  the  devil  is  rep- 
resented as  fishing  for  men  and  adapting 
his  baits  to  the  taste  and  temperament  of 
his  prey;  but  the  idler,  he  said,  pleased 
him  most,  because  he  bit  the  naked  hook. 
To  a  young  man  away  from  hom.e, 
friendless  and  forlorn  in  a  great  city,  the 
hours  of  peril  are  those  between  sunset 
and  bedtime;  for  the  moon  and  stars  see 
more  of  evil  in  a  single  hour  than  the 
sun  in  his  whole  day's  circuit.  The 
poet's  visions  of  evening  are  all  compact 
of  tender  and  soothing  images.  They 
bring  the  wanderer  to  his  home,  the  child 
to  his  mother's  arms,  the  ox  to  his  stall, 
and  the  weary  laborer  to  his  rest.  But 
to  the  gentle-hearted  youth  who  is  thrown 
upon  the  rocks  of  a  pitiless  city,  'home- 


122 


THE      WORTH       OF      ADVICE 


less  amid  a  thousand  homes,'  the  ap- 
proaching evening  brings  with  it  an  ach- 
ing sense  of  loneliness  and  desolation, 
which  comes  down  upon  the  spirit  like 
darkness  upon  the  earth.  In  this  mood 
his  best  impulses  become  a  snare  to  him; 
and  he  is  led  astray  because  he  is  social, 
affectionate,  sympathetic,  and  warm- 
hearted. If  there  be  a  young  man  thus 
circumstanced  within  the  sound  of  my 
voice,  let  me  say  to  him,  that  books  are 
the  friends  of  the  friendless,  and  that  a 
library  is  the  home  of  the  homeless.  A 
taste  for  reading  will  always  carry  you 
into  the  best  possible  society,  and  enable 
you  to  converse  with  men  who  will  in- 
struct you  by  their  wisdom,  and  charm 
you  with  their  wit;  who  will  soothe  you 
when  fretted,  refresh  you  when  weary, 
counsel  you  when  perplexed,  and  sym- 
pathize with  you  at  all  times." 

Books  are  the  voices  of  the  dumb, 
The  tongues  of  brush  and  pen; 

The  ever-living  kernels  from 
The  passing  husks  of  men. 

It  is  from  good  books  as  well  as  from 
living  personages  that  boys  will  receive 
much   of  the   good    advice   which   they 

123 


The  man  who  tries 
and  succeeds  is  one 
degree  less  of  a  hero 
than  the  man  who  tries 
and  fails  and  yet  goes 
on  trying. —  Ellen 
Thornycroft  F  o  w- 

LER. 


Oh,  do  not  pray  for 
easy  lives — pray  to  be 
stronger  men.  Do 
not  pray  for  tasks  equal 
to  your  powers, — pray 
for  powers  equal  to 
your  tasks. —  Phillips 
Brooks. 


To  know  how  to 
grow  old  is  the  master- 
work  of  wisdom,  and 
one  of  the  most  diffi- 
cult chapters  in  the 
great  art  of  living.  — 
Henri  Frederic 
Amiel. 


BOY      WANTED" 


If  instead  of  a  gem 
or  even  a  flower,  we 
could  cast  the  gift  of 
a  lovely  thought  into 
the  heart  of  a  friend, 
that  would  be  giving 
as  the  angels  give.  — 
George  MacDonald. 


What  must  of  ne- 
cessity be  done  you 
can  always  find  out, 
beyond  question,  how 
to  do. —  RUSKIN. 


When  I  hear  people 
say  that  circumstances 
are  against  them,  I 
always  retort:  "You 
mean  that  your  will  is 
not  with  you!"  I  be- 
lieve in  the  will — I 
have  faith  in  it.  — 
Elizabeth  Barrett 
Browning. 


must  follow  in  order  that  they  may  make 
the  most  of  life.  Life  is  too  short  for  a 
boy  ta  investigate  everything  for  himself. 
There  is  much  that  he  must  accept  as 
being  true.  He  has  not  the  time  to 
follow  every  road  to  its  end  and  ascer- 
tain if  the  sign-posts  have  all  told  the 
truth.  Strive  as  we  may  we  are  still  de- 
pendent for  much  of  our  information 
upon  the  hearsay  of  others.  No  one  per- 
son can  begin  to  know  everything. 

Every  thinking  boy  clearly  understands 
that  he  knows  much  more  to-day  than 
he  did  a  year  ago.  And  he  has  good 
reason  for  thinking  that  if  he  shall  re- 
main among  the  living  he  will  know 
many  things  a  year  from  now  that  he 
does  not  know  to-day.  To  live  is  to  learn. 
Hence  it  is  that  youth  should  be  modest 
in  the  presence  of  age,  for  silver  hair  and 
wisdom  are  more  than  likely  to  dwell 
together.  No  youth  should  think  too 
lightly  of  his  own  mental  endowments 
and  his  fund  of  information,  neither 
should  he  permit  his  very  lack  of  knowl- 
edge to  lead  him  to  think  that  he  has 
acquired  about  all  the  secrets  that  nature 
and  the  great  world  have  to  divulge. 
Every  boy  should  be  cool-headed,  clear- 
124 


THE      WORTH       OF      ADVICE 


headed,  long-headed,  level-headed,  but 
not  big-headed.  Should  he  become  af- 
flicted with  a  serious  attack  of  "enlarge- 
ment of  the  brain"  it  is  more  than  likely 
that  when  he  has  reached  the  years  of 
soberer  manhood  he  will  look  back  with 
a  sense  of  good-humored  humiliation  to 

MY  BOYHOOD   DREAMS 

I  remember,  I  remember 

When  I  was  seventeen; 
I  was  the  cleverest  young  man 

The  world  had  ever  seen. 
The  universe  seemed  simple  then, 

But  now  'tis  little  joy 
To  know  I  don't  know  lots  of  things 

I  did  know  when  a  boy. 

I  remember,  I  remember 

This  old  world  seemed  so  slow; 
I'd  teach  it  how  to  conquer  things 

When  once  I  got  a  show! 
'T  was  such  a  charming  fairy  tale! 

But  now  't  is  sorry  play 
To  find  how  hard  I  have  to  work 

To  get  three  meals  a  day. 

I  remember,  I  remember 

The  things  I  planned  to  do; 

I  meant  to  take  this  poor  old  earth 
And  make  it  over  new. 

125 


If  you  do  not  scale 
the  mountain,  you 
cannot  view  the  plain. 
—  Chinese. 


There  is  no  substi- 
tute for  thorough-go- 
ing, ardent,  sincere 
earnestness.  —  Dick- 
ens. 


To  leave  undone 
those  things  which  we 
ought  to  do,  to  leave 
unspoken  the  word  of 
recognition  or  appre- 
ciation that  we  should 
have  said,  is  perhaps 
as  positive  a  wrong  as 
it  is  to  do  the  the  thing 
we  should  not  have 
done.  —  Lillian 
Whiting. 


BOY      WANTED" 


Those  who  can  take 
the  lead  are  given  the 
lead.  —  Arthur  T. 
Hadley. 


When  a  family  rises 
early  in  the  morning, 
conclude  the  house  to 
be  well  governed.  — 
Chinese. 


Duty  determines 
destiny.  Destiny 
which  results  from 
duty  performed  may 
bring  anxiety  and  per- 
ils, but  never  failure 
and  dishonor. —  Wil- 
liam   McKlNLEY. 


It  was  a  most  delightful  dream ; 

But  now  't  is  little  cheer 
To  know  the  world  when  I  am  gone 

Won' t  know  that  I  was  here. 

This  somewhat  overdrawn  picture  of 
human  conceit  and  egotism  holds  a  lesson 
for  each  and  all  of  us.  He  who  knows 
it  all  can  learn  no  more,  and  he  who 
can  learn  no  more  is  likely  to  die  igno- 
rant. There  are  guide-posts  all  along  our 
ways  which  if  heeded  will  direct  us  to- 
ward the  very  destinations  we  should 
reach.  And  nothing  else  is  so  full  of 
suggestion  and  inspiration  as  is  a  good 
book.  In  it  we  can  enter  the  very  heart 
of  a  man  without  being  abashed  by  the 
author's  august  presence. 

When  quite  young,  the  poet,  Cowley, 
happened  upon  a  copy  of  Spenser's 
"Faerie  Queen",  which  chanced  to  be 
nearly  the  only  book  at  hand,  and  be- 
coming interested  he  read  it  carefully 
and  often,  until,  enchanted  thereby,  he 
irrevocably  determined  to  be  a  poet. 
The  effect  this  same  poem  had  upon 
the  Earl  of  Southampton  when  he  first 
read  it  is  worth  remembering.  As  soon 
as  the  book  was  finished  Spenser  took 
it  to  this  noble  patron  of  poets  and  sent 
126 


THE      WORTH       OF      ADVICE 


it  up  to  him.  The  earl  read  a  few  pages 
and  said  to  a  servant,  "Take  the  writer 
twenty  pounds."  Still  he  read  on,  and 
presently  he  cried  in  rapture,  "Carry 
that  man  twenty  pounds  more."  En- 
tranced he  continued  to  read,  but  pres- 
ently he  shouted:  "Go  turn  that  fellow 
out  of  the  house,  for  if  I  read  further 
I  shall  be  ruined!" 

Dr.  Franklin  tells  us  that  the  chance 
perusal  of  De  Foe's  "Essay  on  Projects" 
influenced  the  principal  events  and  course 
of  his  life.  The  reading  of  the  "Lives 
of  the  Saints"  caused  Ignatius  Loyola 
to  form  the  purpose  of  creating  a  new 
religious  order, — which  purpose  even- 
tuated in  the  powerful  society  of  the 
Jesuits. 

Dickens's  earliest  and  best  literary 
work,  the  "Pickwick  Papers,"  was  begun 
at  the  suggestion  of  a  publisher  of  a 
magazine  for  whom  Dickens  was  doing 
some  job-work  at  the  time.  He  was 
asked  to  write  a  serial  story  to  fit  some 
comic  pictures  which  chanced  to  be  in 
the  publisher's  possession. 

While  yet  a  mere  boy  Scott  chanced 
upon  a  copy  of  Percy's  "Reliques  of  An- 
cient Poetry,"  which  he  read  and  re-read 

127 


Laziness  travels  so 
slowly  that  poverty 
soon  overtakes  him. — 
Franklin. 


It  is  faith  in  some- 
thing and  enthusiasm 
for  something  that 
makes  a  life  worth 
looking  at. —  Oliver 
Wendell  Holmes. 


Blessed  is  he  who 
has  found  his  work. 
From  the  heart  of  the 
worker  rises  the  celes- 
tial force,  awakening 
him  to  all  nobleness, 
to  all  knowledge. — 
Thomas   Carlyle. 


BOY      WANTED" 


Nothing  that  is  ex- 
cellent can  be  wrought 
suddenly. —  Jeremy 
.Taylor. 


Character    is    cen- 

trality,  the  impossibil- 
ity of  being  displaced 
or  overset.  —  Emer- 
son. 


A  good  book  is  the 
precious  life-blood  of 
a  master  spirit  em- 
balmed and  treasured 
up  on  purpose  to  a 
life  beyond  life.  — 
Milton. 


with  great  interest.  He  purchased  a 
copy  as  soon  as  he  could  get  the  neces- 
sary sum  of  money  and  thus  was  early 
instilled  into  his  soul  a  taste  for  poetry 
in  the  writing  of  which  he  was  destined 
to  attain  such  eminence.  The  transla- 
tion of  "Gotz  von  Berlichengen"  was 
Scott's  first  literary  effort  and  this  work, 
Carlyle  says,  had  a  very  large  and  last- 
ing influence  on  the  great  novelist's  fu- 
ture career.  In  his  opinion  this  trans- 
lation was  "the  prime  cause  of  'Mar- 
mion'  and  the  'Lady  of  the  Lake,'  with 
all  that  has  followed  from  the  same  crea- 
tive hand.  Truly  a  grain  of  seed  that 
had  lighted  in  the  right  soil.  For  if  not 
firmer  and  fairer,  it  has  grown  to  be 
taller  and  broader  than  any  other  tree; 
and  all  nations  of  the  earth  are  still 
yearly  gathering  of  its  fruit." 

Thus  we  see  how  much  there  is  in 
life  for  those  who  observe  their  sur- 
roundings, who  read  the  directions  on 
the  guide-posts,  who  study  the  guide- 
books and  who  are  wise  enough  to  re- 
ceive and  to  utilize  the  advice  and  sug- 
gestions that  are  everywhere  offered 
them,  and  which  their  reason  tells  them 
are  good. 

128 


CHAPTER  X 


REAL    SUCCESS 


CigOY  Wanted." 

Are  you  the  boy? 
If  you  have  carefully  read  and  di- 
gested the  foregoing  chapters  you  have  a 
pretty  clear  understanding  of  the  sort  of 
boy  the  world  prefers  for  a  life  partner. 
You  have  learned  that  you  must 

Ask  no   favors  of  "luck," — win  your  way  like  a 
man; 

Be  active  and  earnest  and  plucky ; 
Then  your  work  will  come  out  just  about  as  you  plan 

And  the  world  will  exclaim,  "Oh,  how  lucky!" 

In  studying  the  history  of  the  lives  of 
successful  men  we  are  constantly  being 
impressed  with  the  thought  that  they 
make  the  most  out  of  their  surroundings, 
whatever  their  surroundings  may  be. 
They  do  not  wait  for  a  good  chance  to 
succeed;  they  take  such  chances  as  they 
can  get  and  make  them  good.  We  very 
soon  learn  that 


Resolve  to  cultivate 
a  cheerful  spirit,  a 
smiling  countenance, 
and  a  soothing  voice. 
The  sweet  smile,  the 
subdued  speech,  the 
hopeful  mind,  are 
earth's  most  potent 
conquerors,  and  he 
who  cultivates  them 
becomes  a  very  master 
among  men. —  Hub- 
bard. 


They  also  serve 
who  only  stand  and 
wait. —  Milton. 


129 


"BOY      WANTED" 


Two  things  fill  me 
with  awe :  the  starry 
heavens  above,  and 
the  moral  sense  with- 
in.—  Kant. 


The  realities  of  to- 
day surpass  the  ideals 
of  yesterday,  — 
Frothingham. 


The  person  who 
considers  everything 
will  never  decide  on 
anything. — Italian. 


The  ones  who  shall  win  are  the  ones  who  will  toil ; 

The  future  is  all  in  our  keeping; 
Though  fortune  may  give  us  the  seed  and  the  soil, 

We  must  still  do  the  sowing  and  reaping. 

We  learn,  also,  that  one  may  achieve 
a  full  measure  of  success  without  ac- 
cumulating much  money,  and  may  ac- 
cumulate much  money  without  achieving 
success.  "Mere  v/ealth  is  no  more  suc- 
cess than  fools'  gold  is  real  gold,"  says 
one  of  our  wise  essayists.  "Collaterals 
do  not  take  the  place  of  character.  A 
man  obtains  thousands  or  millions  of 
dollars  by  legal  or  illegal  thieving,  and 
society,  instead  of  sending  him  to  prison, 
receives  him  in  its  parlors.  Men  bow 
low  when  he  passes,  as  in  the  fable  the 
people  bowed  to  the  golden  idols  that 
were  strapped  on  the  back  of  a  donkey, 
who  was  ass  enough  to  swell  with  pride 
in  the  thought  that  all  this  reverence  was 
for  him.  The  man  who  puts  his  trust  in 
gold  and  deposits  his  heart  in  the  bank, 
and  thinks  money  means  success,  is  like 
the  starving  traveler  in  the  desert,  who, 
seeing  a  bag  in  the  distance,  found  in  it, 
instead  of  food  which  he  sought,  nothing 
but  gold,  and  flung  it  from  him  in  dis- 
appointment, and  died  for  want  of  some- 
130 


REAL       SUCCESS 


thing  that  could  save  his  life.  The  soul 
will  starve  if  gold  alone  administers  to 
its  needs.  Better  to  be  a  man  than  merely 
a  millionaire.  Better  to  have  a  head  and 
heart  than  merely  houses  and  lands."  ^ 
It  is  along  such  lines  of  thinking  that 
I  offer  these  thoughts 

ON    GETTING    RICH 

Get  riches,  my  boy !    Grow  as  rich  as  you  can ; 

'T  is  the  laudable  aim  of  each  diligent  man 

Of  life's  many  blessings  his  share  to  secure, 

Nor  go  through  this  world  ill-conditioned  and  poor. 

Get  riches,  my  boy !    Ah,  but  hearken  you,  mind ! 
Get  riches,  but  those  of  the  genuine  kind. 
Get  riches, —  not  dollars  and  acres  unless 
You  thoughtfully  use  them  to  brighten  and  bless. 

Get  riches,  not  such  as  with  money  are  bought, 
But   those   that  with   love  and  high   thinking  are 

wrought ; 
Get  rubies  of  righteousness,  jewels  of  grace. 
Whose  brightness  Time's  passing  shall  never  efface. 

Get  riches!     Do  not,  as  the  foolish  will  do. 

In  getting  your  money  let  money  get  you 

To  steal  life's  high  purpose  from  heart  and  from  head 

And  prison  the  soul  in  a  pocket  instead. 

Get  riches !    Get  gold  that  is  pure  and  refined ; 
Get  light  from  above ;  get  the  love  of  mankind ; 
Get  gladness  through  all  of  life's  journey;  and  then 
Get  heaven,  forever  and  ever.     Amen. 


Nobody  can  carry 
three  watermelons  un- 
der one  arm.  —  Span- 
ish. 


When  men  speak 
ill  of  thee,  live  so  that 
nobody  will  believe 
them.  —  Plato. 


The  great  high-road 
of  human  wchare  lies 
along  the  old  highway 
of  steadfast  well-being 
and  well-doing,  and 
they  who  are  the  most 
persistent,  and  work  in 
the  truest  spirit,  will 
invariably  be  the  most 
successful ;  success 
treads  on  the  heels  of 
every  right  effort. — 
Samuel  Smiles. 


"BOY      WANTED" 


He  overcomes  a 
stout  enemy  who  over- 
comes his  own  anger. 
—  Greek. 


Stones  and  sticks 
are  flung  only  at  fruit- 
bearing  trees. —  Per- 
sian. 


Let  every  man  be 
occupied,  and  occu- 
pied in  the  highest 
employment  of  which 
his  nature  is  capable, 
and  die  with  the  con- 
sciousness that  he  has 
done  his  best.  —  Syd- 
ney Smith. 


The  wide-awake  boy  will  see  the  ad- 
vantage of  carrying  in  his  thought  these 
words  of  Lavater:  "He  who  sedulously 
attends,  pointedly  asks,  calmly  speaks, 
coolly  answers,  and  ceases  when  he  has 
no  more  to  say  is  in  possession  of  some  of 
the  best  requisites  of  man." 

The  man  of  words  and  not  of  thoughts 
Is  like  a  great  long  row  of  naughts. 

"There  is  a  gift  beyond  the  reach  of 
art,  of  being  eloquently  silent,"  says 
Bovee,  and  Caroline  Fox  tells  us  that 
"the  silence  which  precedes  words  is  so 
much  grander  than  the  grandest  words 
because  in  it  are  created  those  thoughts 
of  which  words  are  the  mere  outward 
clothing."  To  speak  to  no  purpose  is  as 
idle  as  the  clanging  of  tinkling  cymbals. 

A  thoughtful  man  will  never  set 
His  tongue  a-going  and  forget 
To  stop  it  when  his  brain  has  quit 
A-thinking  thoughts  to  oi^er  it. 

'^If  thou  thinkest  twice  before  thou 
speakest  once,"  says  Penn,  "thou  wilt 
speak  twice  the  better  for  it." 

It  is  this  matter  of  thinking,  of  con- 


REAL      SUCCESS 


sidering,  of  weighing  one's  words  and 
deeds  that  compels  the  moments,  the 
days  and  the  years  to  bring  the  success 
that  some  mistakenly  think  is  only  a  mat- 
ter of  chance. 

It  is  this  habit  of  careful  thinking  that 
is  going  to  make  you  remember  that  you 
owe  it  not  only  to  yourself  to  make  your 
life  the  truest  success  you  can,  but  you 
owe  it  to  your  family,  your  friends,  your 
enemies — if  such  you  have — to  the  whole 
world  with  which  you  are  in  partnership, 
and  to  the  stars  above  you. 

But  above  all  others  there  is  one  who, 
either  in  spirit  or  in  her  living  presence, 
must  ever  and  always  be  near  to  you,  and 
for  whose  sake  you  will — God  helping 
you! — stand  up  in  your  boots  and  be  a 
man! 

THE   MOTHER'S   DREAM 

Boy,   your  mother's   dreaming;    there's  a  picture 

pure  and  bright 
That  gladdens  all  her  gracious  tasks  at  morning, 

noon  and  night; 
A  picture  where  is  blended  all  the  beauty  born  of 

hope, 
A  view  that  takes  the  whole  of  life  within  its  loving 

scope. 


It  ::  ^n  un contro- 
verted truth  that  no 
man  ever  made  an  ill 
figure  who  understood 
his  own  talents,  nor  a 
good  one  who  mistook 
them.  —  Swift. 


The  great  successes 
of  the  world  have  been 
affairs  of  a  second,  a 
third,  nay,  a  fiftieth 
trial. — John  Morley. 


Be  what  nature  in- 
tended you  for,  and 
you  will  succeed ;  be 
anything  else,  and  you 
will  be  ten  thousand 
times  worse  than  noth- 
ing.—  Sydney  Smith. 


"BOY      WANTED" 


Choose  always  the 
way  that  seems  the 
best,  however  rough 
it  may  be. —  Pythag- 
oras. 


Courage  consists, 
not  in  blindly  over- 
looking danger,  but  in 
meeting  it  with  the 
eyes  open.  —  Jean 
Paul  Richter. 


She 's    dreaming,    fondly    dreaming,    of    the    happy 

future  when 
Her  boy  shall  stand  the  equal  of  his  grandest  fellow 

men 
Her  boy,  whose  heart  with  goodness  she  has  labored 

to  imbue. 
Shall  be,  in  her  declining  years,  her  lover  proud  and 

true. 

She  's  growing  old ;    her  cheeks  have  lost  the  blush 

and  bloom  of  spring. 
But  oh !  her  heart  is  proud  because  her  son  shall  be 

a  king; 
Shall   be   a   king   of   noble    deeds,   with    goodness 

crowned,  and  own 
The  hearts  of  all  his  fellow  men,  and  she  shall  share 

his  throne. 

Boy,  your  mother  's  dreaming ;    there  's  a  picture 

pure  and  bright 
That  gladdens  all  her  gracious  tasks  at  morning, 

noon  and  night; 
A  view  that  takes  the  whole  of  life  within  its  loving 

scope ; 
O  Boy,  beware!  you  must  not  mar  that  mother's 

dream  and  hope. 


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